There are also allegations that the fund was used to buy Pegasus spyware. Parliament is conducting an inquiry into whether Pegasus was used to snoop on opposition politicians during PiS’s time in power.
“The evidence collected so far shows that this is a very serious criminal case. There was a need to obtain further evidence, which could not be gathered otherwise than by carrying out searches,” the National Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
PiS, now in opposition, seized on the probe to claim the new coalition government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk is trampling on the rule of law in an effort to persecute its political enemies.
“They want to cover up gross electoral lies with political revenge in its pure form,” tweeted former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Patryk Jaki, a member of the European Parliament and a political ally of Ziobro, said officials “smashed windows and vandalized the house” of Ziobro while he is undergoing treatment for cancer, adding that these were “gangster” methods.
But the government isn’t backing down.
