“We want to bring about a situation in which the Internal Security Agency (ABW) and other state services are no longer dragged into this kind of political theater and used to boost polling figures for Silni Razem and the government. Instead, they should focus on genuinely combating real crime,” emphasizes defense attorney Dr. Michał Skwarzyński, counsel for Father Michał Olszewski, in an interview with Niezalezna.pl. He was commenting on the fact that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has accepted a complaint alleging torture of the priest.
Complaint officially accepted
Niezalezna.pl reported today that the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights has assigned a case number to the complaint filed on February 18, 2025, regarding the use of torture by Polish authorities against Father Olszewski. The Court has additionally asked the priest’s defense lawyer, Attorney Michał Skwarzyński, to supplement the complaint by April 14.
Polish court ruled everything was in order
In an interview with Niezalezna.pl, Attorney Skwarzyński clarified that “it’s not so much about adding new elements to the complaint as clarifying certain formal issues, because a criminal proceeding is underway in Poland regarding the torture used against Father Michał.”
“But that is a completely separate proceeding, because it deals with crimes committed to his detriment. Father Michał Olszewski has the right to have his case heard by a court. The District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów took the case, but Judge Włoch concluded that everything was in order. It seems, however, that not everything was in order,”
the lawyer assessed.
He added that the ECHR’s decision to take up the case “is a consequence of the fact that [the Polish court] did not properly examine it.”
First step toward success in the case
Asked what it means in practice that Father Michał’s complaint has been assigned a number, Attorney Skwarzyński said that he and his client have passed “the worst stage of this proceeding—effectively the preliminary phase, in which 99 percent of cases are dropped.”
“We are now beyond that stage, and this is the most important moment that interested us. The assignment of a case number and the questions posed by the Court indicate that it wants to investigate this matter,” he stressed.
When asked if this could be considered the first step toward achieving justice, the attorney replied that “yes, it can.”
“We want to bring about a situation in which ABW and other state services are not pulled into this political theater and used to boost polling numbers for Silni Razem and the government but instead focus on truly fighting real crime. And we can all see how things stand in Poland,”
he explained.
History repeats itself
He also mentioned the case of Anna W., a government official held in pre-trial detention, who, when transported to the prosecutor’s office on Thursday, was shackled with both hand and leg restraints. “This is exactly the kind of thing included in Father Michał Olszewski’s complaint, because he, too, was subjected to handcuffing in an excessive manner,” he noted.
When asked how long the ECHR proceedings might last, he said that “in practice, it could take years. Of course, torture cases are handled relatively quickly, but it is still a matter of years,” Attorney Skwarzyński concluded.
At the end of March, Father Michał Olszewski and two officials from the Ministry of Justice were arrested in connection with the Justice Fund case. During and shortly after their arrest, there were reports of mistreatment and abuses against the priest and the two women, which were covered in detail by media in the “Strefa Wolnego Słowa” group.
At the end of October, the Warsaw Court of Appeal allowed the suspects to be released on bail; the priest and the two officials left pre-trial detention after around seven months.