A Warsaw court on Thursday evening ordered the arrest of former Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, a move that could exacerbate a diplomatic dispute between Poland and Hungary.

Ziobro has been in Hungary since late last year and was granted political asylum there in January.

The arrest order marks a further escalation of the political confrontation between Poland’s governing coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the Law and Justice (PiS) party. Tusk has repeatedly pledged to hold PiS to account for alleged corruption during its time in power from 2015 to 2023.

Ziobro is under investigation over the alleged misuse of public funds and the deployment of Pegasus spyware against political opponents, in cases pursued by prosecutors under Tusk’s center-left coalition government. He was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in November.

Ziobro denies all charges and has long argued that the investigation is a political vendetta by Tusk, whom the former minister vows to fight, even from Budapest, he told POLITICO last week.

“Today’s decision only serves the authorities a political purpose, as my client is in Hungary and has been granted international protection,” one of Ziobro’s lawyers, Bartosz Lewandowski, told reporters immediately after the court ruled on the arrest order.

Ziobro’s political protector, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is facing a parliamentary election in April, with pro-EU opposition challenger Péter Magyar leading in opinion polls. A change of power in Budapest could, in theory, potentially result in Ziobro losing his asylum status.

Hungary previously granted asylum to former Polish Deputy Justice Minister Marcin Romanowski, who served under Ziobro.

Following the court’s decision, a request for a European arrest warrant is expected early next week, prosecutors said.