Dariusz Matecki, an MP from Law and Justice (PiS), announced today that a Szczecin court overturned the prosecutor’s decision to discontinue the case regarding threats against him. The comments containing death threats were posted on the Gazeta Wyborcza forum, in the comments section. “This was one of many examples when, in my view for political reasons, the prosecution discontinues such cases of threats to the lives of opposition politicians,” the parliamentarian told Niezalezna.
In September last year, Dariusz Matecki, an MP from Law and Justice (PiS), reported that he had filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office over death threats appearing under articles published by Gazeta Wyborcza, in the comments section.
“‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ publishes hateful articles about me and allows death threats in the comments. Lack of moderation and deliberate incitement of hatred. I filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office. We will see whether today one can threaten an opposition MP with death for publicizing mass migration,” he wrote, showing several example comments in a video.
Prosecutor discontinues – court overturns the decision
After several months, in January, Matecki shared information that the prosecutor had discontinued the investigation into the threats against the politician.
“A few months ago, on the ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ forum, from two different accounts, they wrote directly that I should be shot – killed. The prosecution discontinued the case,” he wrote at the time on the X platform.
It turns out that the Szczecin-Centrum District Court did not agree with the prosecutor’s decision. The parliamentarian announced today that the discontinuation was overturned by the court.
“Today the court crushed the prosecutor’s discontinuation of the case regarding threats to take my life that appeared on the ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ forum,” he wrote on social media.
In his post, the MP included a fragment of the court’s decision. “Killing an MP or any person is not in the public interest, just like inciting such acts, and the perpetrators’ sole aim was to instill in the victim a sense of threat to life and to insult him, which also does not deserve protection. The perpetrators’ statements do not constitute either polemic or affirmation of their own views – beyond a readiness to kill the victim or a declared future joy that someone else would do so. The prosecutor’s position that these statements could not have caused in the victim a justified fear of their fulfillment must also be assessed critically,” the court wrote.
The court further stated: “There have been too many acts of aggression against public figures, including politicians, and attempts on their lives (even in the recent past, e.g. the murders of P. Adamowicz and P. Rosiak) and attacks on MPs’ offices, including PiS offices, which the victim’s party represents, and even plans to attack the Sejm building (e.g. the case of B. Kwiecień), for the victim not to have grounds to fear the threats he cited. Moreover, the prosecutor did not in any way justify why these specific announcements of ‘shooting off his head,’ ‘murdering,’ shooting the victim, and publicly seeking a person willing to do so could not have frightened the victim.”
Matecki to Niezalezna.pl: it is absurd that such cases are discontinued
The Niezalezna.pl portal contacted Dariusz Matecki about the case.
“This was one of many examples when, in my view for political reasons, the prosecution discontinues such cases of threats to the lives of opposition politicians. Against me, Jacek Ozdoba, Zbigniew Ziobro. Without even attempting to verify such actions,” we heard.
As the politician emphasized, “it is easy to determine who is the author of a post on the ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ forum. They have servers in Poland. It is enough to request this from Gazeta Wyborcza and shortly afterward they have the IP address of the person writing such comments. And these are threats to kill an MP – because he carries out opposition activity against the government.”
“If the prosecution, presumably acting on political instructions, discontinues such cases, it shows there is social consent for this type of comment. That is, for threats to take the life of an MP. The court crushed this decision of the prosecution,” Matecki told TV Republika and Niezalezna.pl.
He assessed that “it is absurd that such cases are discontinued.”
At the same time, one can cite numerous examples where the prosecution is used politically, for example against a farmer who spilled slurry in front of Krajewski’s house. The man was detained. A retired woman was convicted. A priest who criticized an abortion activist from Oleśnica was detained at 6 a.m. and transported hundreds of kilometers. “We have a huge disproportion in the approach of law enforcement authorities,” he added.
“This is what a politicized prosecution looks like today,” he concluded.