Joanna’s phone was unlawful, the court ruled, examining the complaint against the actions of the police officers. As we read in the justification, the retention of the phone “exceeded the limits necessary to achieve the goal”, Joanna “was de facto punished for an act that cannot be attributed to her”.
In recent days, there has been a discussion about the case of Joanna, who decided to take an abortion pill because the pregnancy was supposed to threaten her health. She felt bad both physically and mentally. She informed her doctor about it. In the Krakow hospital, she was interrogated and searched by the police. The officers took her laptop and phone. The case was presented by “Fakty” TVN.
Court: It was against the law to keep the phone
On June 27, the District Court for Kraków-Krowodrza examined a complaint filed by her attorney that Ms Joanna’s telephone was taken away.
The court found the seizure of the phone “unlawful and ordered the return of the seized phone.”
The justification reads that the court “had the opportunity to read the description of the event in question only from official notes drawn up by police officers, but from them it follows that their assessment of the situation is not particularly objective”.
“In support of this, you can quote the statement from the note that they did not hinder medical activities in any way, and at the same time the police officers legitimized the doctors working in the hospital and suggested that they cover patients who did not necessarily want to witness their intervention with curtains,” the court wrote.
As he added, “this context is important when assessing the statement made by the police officers about the alleged voluntary release of the phone by Joanna (…), which claim suffers from shortcomings in the light of another fragment of the description by the officers, which shows that Joanna (.. .) didn’t want to release the phone at all.”
“This description is definitely more in line with the indications of knowledge and life experience, according to which it is common knowledge that mobile phones have become a kind of life center and their loss is very painful” – it was written in the justification of the decision.
Joanna took the abortion pill. The police came to the hospital, took her laptop and phoneRenata Kijowska/Fakty TVN
Court: she was de facto punished for an act that cannot be attributed to her
“Working with the police, the named person (Joanna – ed.) clearly indicated how she ordered the morning-after pills, i.e. via the Internet via a notebook, which was also seized. mobile phone for this purpose.
Therefore, the court pointed out, “there were no grounds to assume that this mobile phone could constitute evidence in the case, so its detention exceeded the limits necessary to achieve the purpose of the action and the allegations raised in the complaint by the applicant’s attorney are justified.”
“By such conduct on the part of the police officers, Joanna (…) was de facto punished for an act which, in the light of Article 152 of the Penal Code, cannot be attributed to her. The above considerations justified the conclusion that the act of stopping the telephone was unlawful, resulted in an order to return the phone,” the court wrote in the justification.
He added that “given the one-sidedness shown in the description of the situation in the hospital by police officers, it would be desirable for them to be more restrained in the future when performing activities in hospital conditions against a person who cannot be charged”.
Main photo source: Jan GRACZYNSKI/East News