Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
The Polish Minister of Justice has defended his decision to carry a gun, citing a previous death contract taken out against him as justification.
An image of Ziobro with a handgun tucked into his belt has been widely shared in the Polish media, after it was taken on Monday while he visited a lignite mine. The photo was snapped as a gust of wind lifted up his jacket.
On Tuesday, at a press conference, Ziobro declared himself a “victim in a case pertaining to a murder contract”, and thus, applied for a gun permit a few years ago.
He said that the case had been brought to court and the perpetrator of the contract killing had been in pre-detention for some time.
“He is one of the bosses of an organised crime group that dealt with drugs and psychoactive substances and who took out the contract against the person speaking to you right now,” Zbigniew Ziobro explained.
The minister stated that he had been involved in sports shooting for over two decades and was carrying a modified Glock 26 due to his shooting activities over the past weekend.
He went on to say that he was acting “on the basis and within the law… and making this a sensation is completely incomprehensible.”
Ziobro, a government minister and prosecutor general, is accompanied at all times by state protection officers.