President Andrzej Duda has stripped Krzysztof Kuryłowicz of the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Chancellery of the President announced on Friday. Kuryłowicz was decorated in 2011 “for outstanding services in his activities for the Polish diaspora and the promotion of Polishness in Kazakhstan.”
President Duda's decision to strip Kuryłowicz of the order was announced on Friday on the website of the presidential office.
“The President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, by order of 1 August 2024, pursuant to art. 36 section 1 point 2 of the Act of 16 October 1992 on orders and decorations, deprived Krzysztof Kuryłowicz of the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta,” we read in the announcement.
Statement from the President's Office
In the 2011 decision to award the order, Kuryłowicz is titled a priest. The office did not provide a justification for the decision to strip him of the order.
Deprivation of orders and decorations 1. The President may decide to deprive orders and decorations at the request of the Chapters of Orders, the bodies mentioned in art. 2, paragraphs 2 and 3, and on his own initiative after seeking the opinion of the applicant, and in the case of deprivation of an order – after seeking the opinion of the relevant Chapter, if it is found that: 1) the award of the order or decoration was the result of misleading, or 2) the recipient committed an act as a result of which he became unworthy of the order or decoration.
Order of Polonia Restituta It was established by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland by the Act of 4 February 1921 as the highest state decoration after the Order of the White Eagle.
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