Polish Supreme Court overturns “Poland for Poles” hate speech ruling at request of justice minister

Poland’s Supreme Court has overturned the hate speech conviction of a man who, in a Facebook post, wrote “Poland for the Poles”, called for a “white Poland”, and condemned “rainbow politicians”.

Zbigniew Ziobro, who serves as justice minister and public prosecutor general in Poland’s national-conservative government, has twice appealed to the Supreme Court to invalidate the ruling. While his first attempt failed, he has now been successful.

The decision has been condemned by the anti-racism NGO that first brought the case, which notes that the ruling was issued by a chamber of the court created by the government’s judicial overhaul. It was, however, welcomed by the head of body that organises Poland’s largest annual nationalist march.

The case in question dates back to an entry on Facebook made in December 2018 by a man publicly identified only by the initials P.T., who wrote:

“Poland for the Poles! I don’t give a shit about [political] correctness. My son is to grow up in a white Poland and with traditions that have been [here] for generations. No whore from among the rainbow politicians will change that!!!!”

He was reported to prosecutors by the Centre for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behavior (OMZRiK), an NGO that combats online racism. That led to the district court in Żywiec handing the man a six-month suspended prison sentence in 2021 for inciting racial or national hatred, which is a crime in Poland.

Ziobro decided to appeal that ruling at the Supreme Court. He argued that the man’s words had been “a manifestation of personal views within broadly understood freedom of speech [and that] its purpose had not been to evoke hostility among recipients”, reports the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

Last year, the Supreme Court’s criminal chamber rejected Ziobro’s application, finding that there were not sufficient grounds to overturn the lower-court ruling.

In its justification, reported by legal news service Prawo.pl, the court noted that P.T.’s Facebook entry had made hurtful remarks regarding people of different skin colour and those who support the rights of sexual minorities. Posting such a message publicly is hard not to define as a call to action, it added.

Ziobro, however, continued to pursue the case, filing another petition to the Supreme Court in the form of an “extraordinary complaint” (skarga nadzwyczajna). That legal tool, introduced under the current government in 2017, allows certain senior officials to challenge rulings they believe to be flawed.

Now, in a ruling made yesterday, the Supreme Court’s extraordinary review and public affairs chamber – which was created as part of the current government’s judicial overhaul and had been deemed unlawful by the European Court of Rights – upheld Ziobro’s latest complaint.

Justifying the decision, the chairman of the ruling panel, judge Adam Redzik, noted that “the right to freedom of expression is primary” and that a conviction for inciting hatred must demonstrate the “ill intent” of the person responsible, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

The Supreme Court pointed out that the man who made the entry on Facebook had denied any intent to incite hatred, but that this was ignored by the lower court, which erroneously assumed that he had confessed to the act and found him guilty.

“The files clearly show that he only admitted to posting the entry and clearly stated that he did not intend to offend anyone and incite hatred,” noted another of the Supreme Court’s judges, Krzysztof Wiak. “You can question such explanations, but the court in Żywiec did not take them into consideration.”

“Even the prosecutor general does not question that the entry was an expression of xenophobic and nationalist views,” he added. “But punishment can only be imposed if it calls for hatred at the same time, and there are no arguments in the evidence that would allow such an intention to be attributed.”

Yesterday’s ruling was condemned by OMZRiK, which noted that it had been made by a chamber created by the ruling party and staffed with “pseudo-judges” appointed by the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), another body overhauled by the government in a way that Polish and European court rulings have found unlawful.

“In our opinion, the chamber proved today that the judges sitting in it act as enforcers of the will of Zbigniew Ziobro,” wrote OMZRiK.

The decision to overturn P.T.’s conviction was, however, welcomed by Bartosz Malewski, a lawyer associated with ultra-conservative legal group Ordo Iuris. This “important ruling confirms that there is freedom of speech in Poland, although sometimes you have to fight for it relentlessly”, he tweeted.

Malewski is part of the far-right All-Polish Youth (Młodzież Wszechpolska). He is also president of the body that organises the annual Independence March in Warsaw, which was founded by All-Polish Youth and two other leading far-right groups, National-Radical Camp (ONR) and Ruch Nardowy (National Movement).

Main image credit: GRZEGORZ DABROWSKI / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

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.