The searches are related to an investigation into crimes committed during the Independence March in 2018.
According to Bąkiewicz, the police actions “are an attempt to intimidate the Independence March”. He added that he has not been asked for explanations or documents in any case concerning the Independence March. The apartments of other activists of the association have also been searched.
As he assessed, it was only about searching his apartment. – To get my computer, because there are files and important information saved there – he said.
Earlier, he posted on the X platform, in which he wrote: “Today’s political actions by the police commissioned by Donald Tusk are revenge for telling the truth about the actions of the current government and an attempt at intimidation! Under any pretext, phones and a computer were taken away in order to limit the scope of my activities.”
The investigation has been resumed
The 2018 case was initially dismissed, but the investigation was resumed this year. Norbert Woliński, spokesman for the Warsaw-Praga District Prosecutor’s Office, reported that during the proceedings, a video recording was revealed, among other things, in which one of the participants of the march from six years ago makes criminal threats against another person, including the use of violence.
– The perpetrator’s clothing and behavior indicate that he belongs to the Independence March guard – said the prosecutor.
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The prosecutor’s office is searching the property of Robert Bąkiewicz. Report by Michał Fedusio (IAR) 1:30
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Read also:
- Search at Bąkiewicz’s. We have a comment from the prosecutor’s office
Independence March 2018. Bąkiewicz as a witness
The image of this person was shown to dozens of witnesses belonging to the Independence March Association, but none of them, including Robert Bąkiewicz, who was then the chairman of the public assembly, recognized the perpetrator. As explained by the prosecutor, other actions taken in the investigation, including posting the images on the police website, did not lead to establishing the identity of the perpetrator, and the head of the Independence March guard did not provide law enforcement with a list of members of this formation.
Bąkiewicz, who was the president of the Independence March Association from 2017 to 2023, has witness status in the case. No one has been arrested in the case so far.
Błaszczak: Repression of the opposition. Kwiatkowski: We have a ban on hate speech
Politicians have commented on the matter. PiS club leader Mariusz Błaszczak accuses the prosecutor’s office of acting on political orders. He assessed that the opposition is being repressed, and that this will intensify, because the current authorities “cannot govern Poland”. The government, Błaszczak assessed, “by repressing the opposition” wants to “serve public opinion circuses instead of bread”.
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Mariusz Błaszczak and Krzysztof Kwiatkowski on police searches (IAR) 0:24
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According to Civic Coalition senator Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, it is good that the prosecutor’s office is returning to this matter. – For me, it is not politics that the prosecutor’s office says that during the gatherings organized by Mr. Bąkiewicz the penal code was broken – this is how hate speech is prohibited in Poland – said the KO senator.
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