Political Imprisonment In Poland: LGBTI-Activist Arrested

This morning, the Polish police arrested a 51-year-old woman suspected of desecrating the image of ‘Our Lady of Częstochowa’. The police found the image on the streets in Płock – a city north of the Polish capital. After an investigation they found out that the ‘culprit’ was living in Warsaw. “This is political imprisonment in one of the biggest capitals of the European Union – something we haven’t seen since the fall of the Iron Curtain.”, according to LGBTI-activist and Eastern European Politics expert Rémy Bonny. (This press release has a copyright disclaimer. See bellow)

This morning the police entered an apartment in Warsaw, where during the search they several pictures with the image of “Our Lady of Częstochowa” were found – surrounded with a rainbow halo. “Therefore, the 51-year-old woman was detained” – the spokeswoman of the Płock police said in a statement.

Besides the pictures, also the computers of the LGBTI-activist are being taken in to custody

Earlier, the Minister of Interior Joachim Brudzinski, stated that “this morning the Polish Police stopped a person suspected of profaning the image of the Mother of God Częstochowa in Płock”. “This person was already under surveillance for a few days, but we had to wait to arrest her since she was abroad, and today she will be charged with Article 196 CC” – wrote Brudziński on Twitter .

Later he declared: “Thank you to the Polish Police for an efficient campaign with the identification and detention of a person suspected of profaning the image of the Holy Mother for centuries for Poles. No fool of freedom, nor tolerance has the right to offend the feelings of believers.”

The image was found on the night of April 26-27 around the Płock Church of St. Dominika on trash bins and portable toilets,

Earlier the Polish Interior Minister wrote this on Twitter: “As I found out in Płock, profanation, holy for ages, for all generations of Poles, the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa was made ridiculous, the Police will take actions against this pseudo-tolerant happenings on this type of cultural barbarism ” .

Political Imprisonment

According to political scientist Rémy Bonny, the detention of the 51 years old activist is an act of political persecution: “The start of criminal procedures against the 51yo LGBTI-activist in Poland is an all time low for European LGBTI-Politics. This is a gross human rights violation. I call the EU and the CoE to intervene asap. Let me be clear – we are speaking about political imprisonment.” he states on Twitter. 

“During the eighties, the Polish secret police made lists of homosexuals. The acts of Today seem to come very close to what happened before the fall of communism. This is a direct, but illegal, implementation of the Russian anti-propaganda law. As member of the EU and the Council of Europe, Poland does not have the legal base to detain citizens because of their political opinion – nor the expression of any peaceful opinion. This needs to be a wake-up call for the politicians in Brussels and Strasbourg. If we let a political imprisonment happening in one of the biggest capitals of the EU, it will not get better for the LGBTI-community.”, Bonny concludes.