On Friday, Jan Śpiewak was sentenced by the Warsaw District Court to pay 5 thousand and 10 thousand zloty to Bogumiła Górnikowska-Ćwiąkalska – the daughter of the former Minister of Justice. The case concerned an act of defamation allegedly committed by Śpiewak who had made public her participation in the reprivatization of the tenement house on Joteyki street. The verdict paradoxically means that the activist who revealed the reprivatization scandal in Warsaw is so far the only one to have been sentenced in connection to it.
Jan Śpiewak has announced that he’s going to file a request for clemency to the Chancellery of the President of Poland. He met with President Andrzej Duda before yesterday.
”If a motion will be filled then the case will be investigated. This is a shocking case, because it was a man who fought for justice”- says Andrzej Duda, President of Poland.
The Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki took the floor in this matter on Saturday.
”It is worth mentioning one point in this matter: the lawyer was supposed to be a superintendent of a person at the age of 118… No comments.
Themis – a symbol of impartiality wears a blindfold. Friends and enemies have to be judged the same. A person who fights for independence as hard as Mr. Śpiewak should get respect, a medal and a good word. Finding him guilty is against social sense of justice and a belief that he was doing what he was doing for the common good”- says Mateusz Morawiecki, Prime Minister of Poland.
Yesterday , Civic Platform politicians didn’t want to comment on the judge’s ruling. On the other hand, Law and Justice politicians see a solution for this case by filing a request for clemency.
”In my opinion a request for clemency should be filled”- says Jan Maria Jackowski, Senator of the Law and Justice party.
The District Court upheld the judgment of the regional court, which was ruled in mid-January 2019. The private indictment of defamation concerned, among others, an entry published by Śpiewak in October 2017 on Twitter, in which he wrote that the daughter of Minister Ćwiąkalski took over a tenement house in the Ochota district of Warsaw by the 118-year-old curator in 2010.
”The judges wanted to prove that the daughter of Ćwiąkalski can’t be intouchable – the paradox is that Mr. Śpiewak was trying to defend the Warsaw inhabitants who could’ve lost their houses because of a reprivatization. He became a victim”- says Marek Król,publicist.
Jan Śpiewak has announced that he’s going to file a request for clemency to the President of Poland later this week. At the same time, he will also submit a request to the Ombudsman and the Minister of Justice to submit a cassation complaint to the Supreme Court.