Polish far-right leader indicted on seven criminal counts

Jul 24, 2025 | History, Law, Politics

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Polish prosecutors have filed an indictment against far-right MEP Grzegorz Braun over four incidents, including extinguishing Hanukkah candles in Poland’s parliament, disrupting a Holocaust lecture, and removing a Christmas tree from a courthouse.

The indictment follows the European Parliament’s decision in May to lift Braun’s immunity in connection with seven criminal offences, after which he was charged by Polish prosecutors.

Braun, who finished fourth in last month’s presidential election with 6.3% of the vote, was last year stripped of immunity by Poland’s own parliament and charged by prosecutors. But he was subsequently elected to the European Parliament, granting him immunity once again.

The most infamous incident occurred in December 2023, when Braun used a fire extinguisher to put out Hanukkah candles during a ceremony in parliament attended by Polish-Jewish leaders.

He has now been indicted in relation to that incident with insulting a religious group, malicious interference with a religious act and offending religious feelings, as well as assaulting and causing harm to the health of a woman who had been involved in the ceremony.

He has also been indicted for causing damage to property and disturbing the peace during a lecture by Jan Grabowski, a Polish-Canadian Holocaust scholar, at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw.

Prosecutors filed another indictment of property damage against Braun in relation to a further incident in which he removed a Christmas tree from a courthouse because it was decorated with EU and LGBT+ flags.

Finally, he has been indicted for assaulting and insulting a public official during an incident in which Braun entered the National Institute of Cardiology and confronted its director, Łukasz Szumowski.

The case will now go to trial and, if found guilty, Braun will potentially face prison time for the relevant offences. Some of the heaviest penalties are for property damage and for injuring the woman during the Hanukkah incident – both offences are punishable by up to five years imprisonment.

Justice minister and prosecutor general Adam Bodnar, who announced the indictment against Braun, warned that those who believe they can engage in politics through “scandalous excesses” are mistaken. He cited the Polish constitution, which bars individuals convicted of malicious crimes from holding elected office.

Bodnar, soon to be replaced by Waldemar Żurek following yesterday’s government reshuffle, previously submitted two further requests to the European Parliament to strip Braun of immunity.

One relates to an incident in April, when Braun, then a presidential candidate, attempted a “citizen’s arrest” of a gynaecologist who had performed a late-term abortion, as well as an incident in March where he vandalised an LGBT+ exhibition in the city of Opole.

The second, submitted last week, concerns several 2025 incidents: the destruction of an LGBT+ exhibition in the Sejm, criminal defamation in relation to a campaign commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the theft of Ukrainian and EU flags from public buildings.

Separately, the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) is investigating Braun for comments made during a July radio interview in which he declared the gas chambers at Auschwitz to be “fake”.

Braun denies any wrongdoing and claims the proceedings are politically motivated.


Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Bartosz Banka / Agencja Wyborcza

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