Polish activist “Grandma Kate” found guilty of attacking policeman

A prominent Polish anti-government activist known as “Babcia Kasia” (“Grandma Kate”) – who is a regular participant in protests for LGBT and women’s rights – has been found guilty of attacking a police officer during one such demonstration. It is the latest in a number of similar rulings against her.

Poland’s conservative justice minister has, however, criticised the leniency of her conviction. He contrasted the small fine she was given to the three-year prison sentence received by a nationalist for an incident that took place during an LGBT march. Prosecutors have said they will challenge Babcia Kasia’s sentence.

The woman – who can be named only as Katarzyna A. under Polish privacy law – has often clashed with police, and has faced at least a dozen indictments for verbal and physical aggression.

Today, she was found guilty by a court in Warsaw of the crime of violating the bodily integrity of a police officer whom she had hit with a flag pole during a protest in January 2021. She was fined 500 zloty (€112) and ordered to pay 300 zloty compensation to the victim. She can appeal the ruling.

“The court decided that the circumstances of the act and the fault of the accused were beyond doubt based on the evidence collected by prosecutors,” announced Warsaw’s district prosecutor’s office. “The court also shared the prosecutor’s assessment of the hooligan nature of this crime.”

However, the office’s spokesman, Szymon Banna, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that they would file an objection to the punishment issued to Katarzyna A. by the court, which he said was “inadequate” and “grossly mild”.

Similar criticism was made by Zbigniew Ziobro, the justice minister and public prosecutor general. He contrasted Katarzyna A.’s punishment to the case of a young nationalists who was imprisoned for three years for being part of a group that violently sought to grab a rainbow bag during an LGBT parade.

“Look! It turns out you can beat a police officer. Even with a stick. On the condition that you are fighting for [opposition leader Donald] Tusk to come to power and for LGBT rights,” tweet Ziobro sarcastically.

“Then you will pay a few hundred zlotys at the most and you can go beat someone else,” he added. “It’s different when you protest against LGBT. Then you mustn’t even yank a rainbow bag, because the caste will put you in prison for three years.”

The “caste” is a term used by Ziobro to refer to judges whom he believes are politically biased against the current conservative government and in favour of the opposition and its supporters.

Babcia Kasia, a retired English and Spanish teacher, has become one of the most recognisable faces of the protests against Poland’s near-total abortion ban and against the government’s anti-LGBT campaign and judicial reforms.

In October 2021, she was convicted to six months of community service for “kicking, pulling and stamping on policemen” during another demonstration. She appealed that ruling.

In February 2022, a court found her guilty of violating the bodily integrity of two police officers “by pushing them away, pulling them, kicking them, hitting them” and imposed a fine of 1,000 zlotys and charged her with court costs in the amount of 170 zlotys, reports broadcaster TVP.

The prosecution at the time called that punishment “strikingly lenient” and announced an appeal.

In March this year, Katarzyna A. was sentenced to a year and eight months of community service for biting a police officer’s hand, kicking officers on the legs and hitting one of the officers with a flag, reported the Rzeczpospolita. daily. She was also ordered to pay the seven officers 800 zloty each in compensation.

In December 2021, however, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision not to punish Katarzyna A. over another clash with police. It found that officers had made “disproportionate use of coercive measures” at the “peacefully conducted” protest.

It also ruled that the actions of Katarzyna A. herself, which were shown in video evidence, had not constituted a threat, reported news website Wirtualna Polska.

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Main image credit: Slawomir Kaminski / Agencja Gazeta

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.