The District Prosecutor’s Office in Sieradz (Łódź Voivodeship) discontinued the proceedings regarding the march of nationalists in Kalisz, during which, among other things, the text of the Kalisz Statute was burned and anti-Semitic slogans were raised. Investigators checked whether there had been a crime of failure to perform official duties by the mayor of Kalisz and the city police chief.
On November 11, 2021, a march organized by nationalists passed through the streets of Kalisz. According to the police, about 1,000 people attended the first part of the event. Participants of the event, raising anti-Semitic slogans, marched to the Main Market Square, where the text of the Statute of Kalisz – a tolerant privilege for Jews issued by Bolesław the Pious, Duke of Kalisz, was burned in 1264.
During the march and demonstration, the police checked a total of 67 people, two of whom received fines of one hundred zlotys. nobody was not arrested during the eventWhat aroused much controversy. Similarly, the lack of a decision by the mayor of the city to dissolve the assembly.
They checked the attitude of the police and officials
After the event notification of suspected crime were submitted by the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland and the “Never Again” Association. The content indicated that the mayor of Kalisz failed to fulfill his obligation to dissolve a public assembly during which anti-Semitic cries and incitement to hatred were raised. On the other hand, according to the notifying party, the police chief was supposed to have failed to detain the organizers of the march.
The District Prosecutor in Ostrów Wielkopolski applied to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Łódź to appoint a unit from outside the district to conduct the case, in order to avoid the allegation of lack of impartiality in examining the notification. She decided that the District Prosecutor’s Office in Sieradz would handle the case.
Prosecutor’s office: there was no threat to life and health or to property
Now, more than a year after the march, the proceedings have been discontinued. – The procedure regarding the powers of public officials and the regulations related to the decision to hold this assembly and consent to it were analyzed – explains prosecutor Jolanta Szkilnik, spokesperson for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Sieradz.
As he emphasizes, only in exceptional situations and very incidentally is it possible to interrupt such an assembly or refuse to give consent to it.
– These proceedings were discontinued in the scope of exceeding or failing to perform duties by public officials and in the scope of failure to make a decision to interrupt the assembly by the municipal authorities. The features of the crime under Article 231 of the Penal Code have not been exhausted here. (…) The course of the assembly did not pose a threat to the life or health of people or property in significant sizes. He did not violate any legal provisions that would oblige him to discontinue it – explains Szkilnik.
A public official who, by exceeding his powers or failing to fulfill his duties, acts to the detriment of the public or private interest, shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to 3 years.
A spokeswoman for the prosecutor recalls that the course of the entire incident was monitored. – When it came to the situation that its participants could commit offenses, they were punished. The contested banners were taken away. Preventive measures have been applied wherever the norms have been exceeded and a crime has been committed. (…) In the end, all those who committed the crime were covered allegations she emphasized.
The decision to discontinue the proceedings was made at the end of December 2022. It is not final and the parties have the right to challenge it.
Main photo source: TVN24