Poland’s security services have arrested the son of an opposition MP on suspicion of promoting totalitarianism, which is a crime in Poland that carries a potential prison sentence of up to two years.
This afternoon, the spokesman for the security services, Stanisław Żaryn, announced that a man – named only as Michał N. under Polish privacy law – had been detained by the Internal Security Agency (ABW).
“Michał N. runs an extremist channel on a social network…[that] calls for a revolution and the creation of a communist state in Poland,” said Żaryn. He has also encouraged the destruction of monuments to the so-called “cursed soldiers“ – anti-communist partisans – and Roman Dmowski, a Polish nationalist hero.
Propagował komunizm, został zatrzymany przez #ABW.
Michał N. usłyszy zarzuty.
Szczegóły w komunikacie!https://t.co/EQO1Uk5GBy
— Stanisław Żaryn (@StZaryn) July 7, 2021
Żaryn went on to say that Michał N. has called for the murder and torture of Polish soldiers serving overseas. He has also praised the actions of Joseph Stalin, including the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 (which he called a “humanitarian intervention”) and the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Poles.
“The material collected by the ABW indicates the suspicion that Michał N. has committed a crime related to the promotion of a totalitarian system, as well as encouraging illegal activities of an extremist nature,” concluded Żaryn’s statement.
Shortly after the announcement, state broadcaster TVP reported information from inside sources that Michał N. is the son of Wanda Nowicka, an MP from The Left (Lewica), the second largest opposition group in Poland’s parliament.
Gazeta.pl, a news website, later received confirmation from Nowicka herself that it was indeed her son who has been detained. She has as yet made no further comment.
Last year, conservative news website Życie Stolicy reported that Nowicka’s son runs a social media page called “Rebirth of communism” (“Odrodzenie komunizmu”). TVP published a screenshot from a YouTube video of him in front of communist symbols reportedly singing a song glorifying the NKVD, the Soviet security services.
Wojciech Wybranowski, a journalist formerly of Życie Stolicy, wrote today that Nowicka’s son was already investigated in 2006-2010 for praising the Katyn massacre and was convicted for calling for the destruction of monuments.
Main image credit: gov.pl
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.
