A man has been arrested on charges of inciting the assassination of Poland’s president and prime minister on social media, a top security official said on Monday.
Stanislaw Zaryn, the director of the National Security Department, said the man was arrested by officers from the Internal Security Agency (ABW) in the town of Belchatow, southern Poland.
The man, known only as Piotr U. owing to reporting restrictions, is accused of posting insulting comments about President Andrzej Duda on Facebook, and also calling for the murder of Duda, Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland’s prime minister, and police officers on other social media.
Piotr U. has pleaded not guilty, and says his posts merely expressed his private opinions.
Based on the evidence, Piotr U. heard charges of publicly praising the crime of murder with the aim of destroying certain ethnic groups, inciting the murder of the President of the Republic of Poland, the incumbent Prime Minister and police officers, and insulting the President of the Republic of Poland.
The investigation was launched on 13 June this year on the basis of a report of the crime filed by the Lodz Branch Department of the ABW Delegation in Katowice.