Poland detains man planning Christmas market terror attack

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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.

Poland has detained a man who was allegedly planning a terrorist attack on a Christmas market as an act of support for Islamic State.

Jacek Dobrzyński, the spokesman for the security services, announced on Tuesday morning that the suspect is a student at the Catholic University of Lublin in eastern Poland whom he named only as Mateusz W., in accordance with Polish privacy law.

He is 19 years old and Polish, and comes from a devoutly Catholic family, said Dobrzyński, quoted by news website Onet. However, he had become “deeply infatuated with Islam” and had “fallen in love with terrorism”, seeking to establish contact with Islamic State.

Mateusz W. is “suspected of preparing a mass attack at a Christmas market, which he planned to carry out using explosive materials”, said Dobrzyński.

The suspect had been acquiring knowledge about how to independently produce materials that could be used for such an attack.

“He also planned to join a terrorist organisation to obtain assistance in implementing the intended actions,” added the spokesman. “His goal was to kill and intimidate people, as well as to support Islamic State.”

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Prosecutors in the city of Szczecin, who are overseeing the case, confirmed that Mateusz W. had been “engaging in conversations and establishing contacts with representatives of Islamic State”.

“Mateusz W.’s actions did not go beyond the preparation phase,” said prosecutors’ spokeswoman Katarzyna Calów-Jaszewska, quoted by news website Interia.

“An examination of his phone indicates that his actions were essentially limited to conversations about ‘some kind of’ attack in a public place where 10-20 people would be present,” she added. “He mentioned the phrase ‘for example, at a market’, but there was no mention of a specific location.”

The authorities detained Mateusz W. in late November and have seized devices belonging to the suspect as well as “items relating to Islam”. A court has approved holding the suspect in detention while the investigation continues. If convicted, he could face up to 12 years in prison.

The Catholic University of Lublin later confirmed that the suspect was a first-year law student and was suspended from his studies this month after the university received information from the court that he had been placed in detention.

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”.

This year, for the first time, the city of Kraków installed concrete barriers around its market square to protect its Christmas market, which was in 2023 rated the best in Europe.

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: Jakub Żerdzicki/Unsplash

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.