Justice minister opens criminal proceedings against opposition politician for “mass migrant grave” claim

Poland’s justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, has initiated criminal proceedings against an opposition politician who claimed that hundreds of migrants who crossed the border from Belarus could have died and been buried in mass graves by the state forestry service to hide the evidence.

“The shocking lies of Janina Ochojska slander Polish foresters…I have instructed the prosecutor’s office to initiate criminal proceedings,” tweeted Ziobro, who also serves as public prosecutor general. “This cannot go unpunished.”

In mid-2021, a crisis began at the border with Belarus that saw tens of thousands of people – mainly from the Middle East, Africa and Asia – try to cross into Poland with the encouragement and assistance of the Belarusian authorities.

The Polish government mounted a tough response, pushing some migrants back into Belarus, detaining others in guarded facilities, banning NGOs and the media from accessing the border, and building a wall there to prevent more crossings.

It argued that such measures were necessary to prevent illegal crossings that were part of a “hybrid war” by Belarus against Poland, and received support in doing so from the EU establishment and Germany.

However, Polish opposition figures and human rights groups, including the UN’s human rights office, criticised the authorities for practices they said endangered the lives of migrants and asylum seekers and in some cases violated Polish and international law.

One of the government’s most vocal critics has been Janina Ochojska, an MEP who sits as an independent but was elected on the list of Poland’s main opposition group. Ochojska is also the founder and president of Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH), a leading NGO, and has been involved in helping migrants at the border.

On Friday, during an interview with broadcaster TOK FM, the MEP referred to estimates by Grupa Granica, another NGO that helps migrants, that 37 people have died trying to cross the Belarusian-Polish border since the start of the crisis. (The following day, another body, likely of a 23-year-old Afghan, was found near the border.)

“I think there are many more victims [than 37],” said Ochojska, suggesting that they could be buried “in some mass grave…so that there would be no evidence”. She noted that almost 300 people who have tried to cross the border remain missing. The MEP did not present any evidence for her claims that those missing had died.

When the interviewer, Jacek Żakowski, pressed Ochojska for more information, she claimed that at one point “[state] foresters from all around the country were summoned” to the border area, suggesting that this was “perhaps to clear away the bodies”.

In response, State Forests, a government agency, announced later the same day that it would be suing Ochojska for her “disgusting lies and insinuations”. Its spokesman also said they would be filing a complaint to the European Parliament about a misleading exhibition the MEP had organised about the border crisis.

That was followed on Sunday by Ziobro announcing that he had ordered the opening of proceedings against Ochojska under Poland’s criminal defamation law, which can result in a prison sentence of up to one year.

A spokesman for the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party also condemned Ochojska’s remarks, saying that they were part of the “path of lies and hate” being followed by Civic Platform (PO), the main opposition party, in the hope of winning this year’s elections.

Even another opposition MP, Andrzej Szejna of The Left (Lewica), warned Ochojska that, “if she has any information about a crime [by state foresters], I encourage her to report it to the prosecutor’s office, otherwise she will be subject to criminal liability”.

Szejna noted that “unfortunately Belarusian propaganda will use every opportunity” to exploit claims of Polish mistreatment of migrants at the border.

Similarly, a deputy interior minister, Maciej Wąsik, suggested that Ochojska’s accusations were little different from those made by Emil Czeczko, a Polish soldier who in 2021 defected to Belarus and made unsubstantiated claims in Belarusian media regarding the alleged mass killing of migrants by Polish authorities.

Ochojska responded to Wąsik on Twitter, citing data showing that 327 people have been reported missing since the start of the crisis and only 95 were subsequently found. “Where are the others? What happened to them?” she asked.

Main image credit: Irek Dorozanski / DWOT (under CC-NC-ND 2.0)

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.