Three men have been arrested on suspicion of being responsible for recent Covid-sceptic and anti-vaccine graffiti that included threats against a government minister.
Last month, the graffiti appeared overnight in various places in the southeastern city of Zamość and the nearby town of Szczebrzeszyn. It included the slogans “False pandemic”, “The vaccine is an instrument for depopulation”, and “Niedzielski you will hang”.
Adam Niedzielski is the health minister. A few days before the graffiti appeared, Grzegorz Braun, a far-right MP and prominent coronavirus conspiracy theorist, had told Niedzielski in parliament that “You will hang!” and that “those responsible for the current situation are war criminals”.
Yesterday, police announced that they have arrested three men for the graffiti. They said that the men admitted being responsible, and that they could face up to five years in prison.
Their graffiti “questioned whether the pandemic is real and also contained anti-vax slogans”, and some included “unlawful threats towards members of the Council of Ministers of our country”, said Dorota Krukowska-Bubiło of Zamość police.
Although the police did not specify what the men had been charged with, Polsat News reported earlier this month that investigators would be charging them with vandalism and making criminal threats.
A Covid vaccination point and the local headquarters of the sanitary authorities were both set alight in the same city in August. The health minister condemned the incident as “an act of terror”. The perpetrators are yet to be caught.
Also in August, thousands joined a march against vaccinations and pandemic restrictions and a uniformed far-right group entered an orphanage to prevent children from being vaccinated.
The chief commander of the Polish police spoke of “an escalation of extremely brutal and even thuggish behaviour of anti-vaccine groups”, and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned that such acts would be “severely” punished. As a result of threats against him, Niedzielski has been given increased protection.
Main image credit: Komendant Miejski Policji w Zamościu
Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.
