Grażyna Olszewska met with her son for the first time since he was arrested at the end of March. In an interview with wPolsce24 television, she spoke about the visit. “I saw a man who was exhausted, poor, destroyed, terrified. You could read everything in his eyes – fear, anxiety, terror, helplessness, a sense of great injustice. It’s terrible,” said the mother of Father Michał Olszewski.
In July, a letter from Father Olszewski appeared in the media, in which he claimed that he had been tortured during his arrest, which took place in connection with the charges brought against him related to money laundering in an investigation into irregularities in the Justice Fund. – I imagined prisons in my mind, but it would never have occurred to me that in the civilized world, in the 21st century, in supposedly democratic Poland, such things were happening. An innocent person can be destroyed, humiliated, slandered in this way. As a clergyman, he is a priest, he has his rights, and for this reason he probably deserves some dignity, which is due to every person – said Grażyna Olszewska.
The woman said that the residents of the village where she lives gather every day at 3 p.m. and pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet for the detained priest. “People are ordering masses in churches, rosaries are being said, people are supporting us. I am helpless, I can’t do anything, all that’s left is prayer,” she added.
ABW’s position on torture allegations
In July of this year, Father Olszewski published a letter in the weekly “Sieci” in which he stated that he had been tortured during his detention. He described being humiliated and denied access to water and a toilet.
The Internal Security Agency responded to the statements about torture in July. The head of the Internal Security Agency, Colonel Rafał Syrysko, said in a statement that the information was “untrue and jeopardizes the good name of the officers carrying out the detention.” He assured that the priest was only handcuffed, and that everything was done in accordance with the regulations and “with respect for the dignity of the detainee and human rights.”
Colonel Syrysko emphasized that the priest did not raise any doubts regarding the manner of his arrest. “He familiarized himself with the protocols but refused to sign them due to the lack of a legal representative on site,” he reported. He added that in connection with the accusations, he was considering taking legal action against people who spoke of torture.
The Prison Service also assures that “the conditions in which the prisoner is staying are subject to ongoing supervision”. “It is not true that Fr. Michał O. was starved and mistreated” – the spokeswoman for the director general of the Prison Service, Lt. Col. Arleta Pęconek, told Interia.
Justice Fund Scandal. Father Olszewski Arrested
At the end of March this year, in connection with the investigation into the Justice Fund, the services detained priest Michał OlszewskiIn recent years, a large stream of funds from the Justice Fund has been flowing to the Profeto Foundation, run by a controversial priest from the Congregation of the Sacred Heart. The priest was arrested in connection with potential fraud involving this money.
