Polish student accused of planning Islamist terrorist attack on Christmas market to stand trial

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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.

A Polish student is to stand trial accused of planning a terrorist attack on a Christmas market in Poland as an act of support for Islamic State.

On Monday, prosecutors announced that they have filed an indictment against the 20-year-old suspect, a student at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) who can be named only as Mateusz W. under Polish privacy law.

Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for Poland’s security services, confirmed that Mateusz W. had been “preparing a mass attack at a Christmas market, which he planned to carry out using explosive materials”.

The suspect was detained late last year, when details of his alleged plot and plans to establish contact with Islamic State were first revealed. He has remained in custody since then.

Though the authorities have confirmed that Mateusz W. was a first-year student at KUL, a leading Catholic university that counts the late Pope John Paul II among its former students and lecturers, and that they have also searched premises in the province of Łódź, they have not revealed where his alleged attack was planned.

However, prosecutors reported today that the suspect had established contacts through which he could gain access to explosive materials and devices, had looked for bomb-making instructions, and had tried to recruit others to his terrorist cause.

“Mateusz W.’s actions were intended to further the policies of the terrorist organisation known as Islamic State and to seriously intimidate people with views contrary to the ideology espoused by the suspect,” wrote Katarzyna Calów-Jaszewska, a spokeswoman for the National Prosecutor’s Office.

In a separate statement, the Internal Security Agency (ABW) revealed that the suspect had “intended to join a terrorist organisation affiliated with the so-called Islamic State and sought people who could help him carry out this plan”.

Neither the security services nor prosecutors have indicated whether Mateusz W. denied or admitted to his alleged crimes or has offered any explanation for his actions. If convicted of preparing a mass attack, he could face up to ten years in prison.

Last year, after Mateusz W. was detained, Dobrzyński said that he came from a devoutly Catholic family but had become “deeply infatuated with Islam” and had “fallen in love with terrorism”.

In an appeal to parents, Dobrzyński said that, “if you see your children interested in Islam, communism, or fascism, and collecting all sorts of information and items on the subject, that’s the first sign. Take care of your own children, because things can only get worse from there”.

After news of Mateusz W.’s detention emerged, KUL suspended his student status. The university’s spokesman, Wojciech Andrusiewicz, said that neither fellow students nor lecturers had noticed any unusual behaviour by the suspect.

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: Mateusz Dach/Pexels 

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.