Poznań. Drag queen may be held accountable for insulting Archbishop Jędraszewski

On Wednesday, the Poznań District Court once again took up the case of Marek M., accused of, among other things, inciting the murder of Archbishop Jędraszewski. It is also about deciding whether the behavior of Marek M., performing on stage as drag queen Mariolkaa Rebell, meets the criteria for insult.

Earlier, the courts of first and second instance acquitted Marek M. of the public charge incitement to murder. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which partially upheld the cassation appeal and referred the case to the District Court for reconsideration. The District Court in Poznań overturned the contested judgment and referred the case to the Poznań District Court for reconsideration, finding in Marek M.'s conduct signs of an insulting act. Thus, Marek M. faces a maximum of one year in prison for this act, not three years as in the case of public incitement to murder.

At the first hearing, the court decided to exclude the public. As explained, the basis is the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which require that insult cases be conducted in secret.

The case concerns events from August 2019. During the Mr Gay Poland elections in Poznań, Marek M., as drag queen Mariolkaa Rebell, performed with an inflatable doll that had a photo of Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski attached to its head. According to the prosecutor's findings, while the words of the song “… I killed him” were being played, the man simulated cutting the priest's throat with a knife, and to enhance the effect, he used fake blood.

The Warsaw prosecutor’s office has charged Marek M. for public incitement to murder clergyman, insulting the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church and other people of this faith, and inciting hatred based on religious differences. The acts the man is accused of are punishable by up to three years in prison. The man's trial began before a Poznań court in 2021.

Marek M. claimed during the trial that during the performance he symbolically “pierced” his own heart and that's when fake blood appeared. This was to symbolize the pain that the words of the archbishop caused the accused. Marek Jędraszewski on the “rainbow plague”.

After the verdict of the court of first instance, the Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro he said: – This verdict goes beyond all these standards and does some harm to the image of the Polish judiciary. It is embarrassing that in Poland we have such judges and such courts.

The prosecutor’s office filed an appeal against this ruling, requesting that the verdict be set aside and the case be referred back to the court for reconsideration.

The District Prosecutor in Warsaw filed a cassation appeal against this ruling. The appeal alleged, among other things, a gross violation of procedural law by the second instance court. At the end of September this year Supreme Court partially upheld the cassation appeal of the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office in this case, set aside the judgment of the Regional Court in Poznań and referred the case to that court for reconsideration.

At the end of November last year, the case was heard by the District Court in Poznań. During the hearing, the court informed the parties about the possibility of changing the legal classification of the act charged against the accused, by assuming that it had exhausted the features of an insult. In connection with the fact that the prosecution of this crime is conducted at the private prosecution, the judge asked the prosecutor's office for its position. The representative of the prosecutor's office present at the hearing emphasized that the prosecutor's office is taking over the prosecution of this act ex officio.

After examining the case, the District Court in Poznań repealed the appealed judgment and referred the case to the Poznań District Court for reconsideration.

Judge Sławomir Olejnik emphasized in the justification of the ruling that “there is no doubt that the accused's act did not exhaust the elements of the crime that were originally included in the charge brought against the accused”. – Here, it is as if one could say that it has been decided in principle. However, the question of the accused's liability for insult is a completely different issue, for the crime of insult – he explained.

He added that the district court conducted a legal analysis of the defendant's conduct, but “from a completely different perspective”. – The features of the crime of which the defendant was acquitted are different, and the crime under Article 216, paragraph 1 of the Penal Code (insult – editor's note) is something completely different, one could say much narrower in scope. Only a comprehensive analysis of the evidence in terms of this particular act can lead to a fair judgment of the defendant's conduct – explained Judge Olejnik. The judge indicated that re-examination of the case – does not at all rule out the district court issuing a second acquittal after re-examination of this case. – In order to enable appellate review in this respect, the district court should rule again on the entire evidence, which is why the regional court decided to refer the case for re-examination by the court of first instance – he said.

On August 1, 2019, on the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, during a homily at St. Mary's Basilica in Krakow, Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski said that it was from the graves of the uprising that a free Poland was born. “We had to wait a long time for it (…) The red plague no longer walks our land, but a new one has appeared, a neo-Marxist one, wanting to take over our souls, hearts and minds. Not red, but rainbow” – he said.