Musician Adam Darski – best known by his stage name “Nergal” as lead singer of Polish extreme metal band Behemoth – has been convicted for offending religious feelings by a court in Warsaw. It ordered him to pay a fine of 15,000 złoty (€3,340) and court costs of almost 3,500 zloty.
Darski (who has waived his legal right to anonymity) has, however, contested the judgement, as he is entitled to do. That means that the case will proceed to a full trial. Should he be found guilty, the crime of offending religious feelings carries a potential prison sentence of up to two years in Poland.
The case is the latest in a series of prosecutions against the Behemoth frontman for insulting the feelings of Christians in Poland, one of Europe’s most religious countries. The current charges relate to an image Darski posted on social media showing a foot stamping on a picture of the Virgin Mary.
Prosecutors were notified by Ordo Iuris, an ultraconservative legal group, and an organisation called the Patriotic Society (Towarzystwo Patriotyczne) that Darski had “offended the religious feelings of four people”, reports state broadcaster TVP Info. One of those individuals is a local politician from Poland’s conservative ruling coalition.
“In the course of proceedings, the aggrieved parties were questioned and they clearly stated that their religious feelings were offended,” said the spokeswoman for Warsaw district prosecutor’s office, Aleksandra Skrzyniarz.
Prosecutors also consulted an expert in religious studies, whose “opinion clearly concludes that treading with a shoe on the image of the Mother of God is an offence against religious feelings,” Skrzyniarz added.
Darski, however, refused to plead guilty to the charge. Today, a judge at the Warsaw-Mokotów district court issued a form of ruling that can be made without a full trial based on case files, in which it found Darski guilty and fined him.
However, either party to the case is allowed object to such a judgement, and Darski’s lawyer, Jacek Potulski, announced that his client has done so. That means the case will proceed to a full trial.
The ruling was nevertheless celebrated by the head of Ordo Iuris, Jerzy Kwaśniewski. He expressed satisfaction that “we have put in place penal norms to protect religious peace by rejecting anti-religious hate”.
Oczywiście jak widać to wyrok nakazowy. Zapewne inicjuje dalsze postępowanie.
Ale, w duchu orzeczeń Trybunału w Strasburgu i TK, mogę powiedzieć, że uruchomiliśmy normy karne służące ochronie pokoju religijnego poprzez odrzucenie antyreligijnej nienawiści.
To ważna zmiana.
— Jerzy Kwaśniewski (@jerzKwasniewski) February 15, 2021
In 2008, Darski faced his first accusation of offending religious feelings, after the head of the National Committee for Defence against Sects reported him to prosecutors for destroying a copy of the bible during a concert in Gdynia. Prosecutors eventually decided to drop the case, while an attempt to bring civil proceedings against Darski also failed.
The musician has subsequently faced various accusations of offending religious feelings, including for setting crosses on fire during another concern. However, Darski has never had a binding guilty verdict issued against him.
Last year, further court proceedings against him began in Gdańsk relating to a 2018 video that he posted online of himself waving a model of a penis with a crucifix attached to it. The notification to prosecutors against Darski was made by an MP (now MEP) from Poland’s ruling party, Dominik Tarczyński.
Darski pleaded not guilty, saying the video was a “joke” that is part of the “work of an artist” such as himself, reports Radio Gdańsk.
Nergal tłumaczy się z filmu, na którym wymachiwał penisem https://t.co/WspbEj9F4v #Nergal #Penis @D_Tarczynski pic.twitter.com/qlX73fzlIj
— Polska Times (@polska_times) March 12, 2018
Another trial began against Darski and two of his associates last year for the crime of insulting Poland’s national emblem by creating a poster that combined it with “satanic symbols”, such as an inverted cross, horns and skulls. Here too he has pleaded not guilty.
Poland has the joint-highest number of defamation and insult laws in Europe, according to a study by the OSCE. As well as offending religious feelings, it is also illegal to insult the president, the Polish nation or state, public officials, and even monuments.
Three LGBT activists are currently on trial in Poland for the crime of offending religious feelings. They added rainbow colours to the halos the Virgin Mary and Jesus in an image that became a symbol of the struggle for LGBT rights in Poland. The latest court hearing in the case is taking place tomorrow.
In December, a man was found guilty of insulting the president after he drunkenly defaced one of Andrzej Duda’s campaign posters by drawing male genitalia on his forehead. He was given a sentence of six months’ community service.
Main image credit: Markus Felix/PushingPixels/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 4.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
