Adam Borowski, head of the Warsaw Club of Gazeta Polska and a legendary anti-communist opposition activist, has been sentenced to six months of unconditional imprisonment for criticizing Roman Giertych. The Civic Coalition politician accused him of defaming him “by alleging conduct that could humiliate him in the eyes of the public or expose him to a loss of trust necessary for the profession of attorney.” Adam Borowski is 70 years old, has suffered a stroke, and is battling cancer.
The case, in which attorney Roman Giertych is the private prosecutor, was heard by the District Court for Warsaw–Śródmieście, Criminal Division II. The Civic Coalition MP, offended by statements made more than a year ago, pursued criminal proceedings. He accused Borowski under Article 212 §2 of the Penal Code and also demanded payment of PLN 200,000.
The private indictment concerned a specific quotation. The words were spoken during a program broadcast by Telewizja Republika:
“Because one may expect that a person who defends—of course, even the greatest criminal is entitled to a defense—but that defender must not cooperate with him. He should be looking for various mitigating factors, and here we see an attorney, one of many of course, because the profession has degenerated, who cooperates with criminals. This entire affair would not have happened without Mr. Giertych’s involvement, who provided not only a kind of legal shield but also offered his acquaintances here and agreed that his acquaintances would serve as figureheads.”
The sentence of unconditional imprisonment for Adam Borowski was reported on platform X by the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Polska, Tomasz Sakiewicz.
“Adam Borowski, a legend of the opposition and a political prisoner in the People’s Republic of Poland, sentenced to six months of unconditional imprisonment for criticizing Giertych,” reads the post.
As Sakiewicz added, Adam Borowski has suffered a stroke and is battling cancer.
Let us recall that Roman Giertych was one of 12 people detained in mid-October 2020 in connection with an investigation into the siphoning off and misappropriation of approximately PLN 92 million from the publicly listed property development company Polnord. Those detained were charged. At the time, the prosecution reported that preventive measures had been applied to Roman Giertych, including, among others, a property bail of PLN 5 million. The attorney’s defense lawyers filed an appeal against that decision. As a result, in December of the previous year, the district court in Poznań lifted the enforcement of the preventive measures. The court found, among other things, that the charges against the attorney had been announced ineffectively. Courts in Poznań at both instances also did not grant the prosecution’s request for pre-trial detention of the suspects. The courts concluded that the collected evidence did not sufficiently substantiate, to a high degree, that the suspects had committed the alleged acts.