The prosecutor’s office decided today to lift the pre-trial detention imposed on journalist Leszek Kraskowski. Other preventive measures have been imposed in its place.
Investigative journalist Leszek Kraskowski was arrested on Saturday, June 6. After spending 27 days in custody, he has now been released.
Kraskowski has been charged with making criminal threats and illegally possessing a firearm. On June 9, the District Court in Piaseczno, acting on the prosecutor’s motion, ordered that the journalist be held in pre-trial detention for three months. Kraskowski had extensively reported on the Polnord scandal. The proceedings sparked controversy, including the fact that his defense lawyer was not present at the detention hearing after allegedly receiving notice of the hearing too late. The case has also been marked by other disputed issues and inconsistencies.
Today, the prosecutor’s office decided to revoke Kraskowski’s pre-trial detention and replace it with non-custodial preventive measures. These include bail set at PLN 25,000, police supervision, a ban on contacting witnesses in the case, a restraining order prohibiting contact with the alleged victim—Kraskowski’s wife, according to the editors—as well as a ban on leaving the country combined with the confiscation of his passport.
“The prosecutor concluded that there is currently no need to continue applying the custodial preventive measure against the suspect. However, the general grounds for preventive measures remain valid, and the specific grounds for applying preventive measures against Leszek K. have not ceased to exist. The evidence gathered so far, in particular the secured evidence, substantiates the suspicion that the suspect committed the offences of physical and psychological abuse, as well as possession of a gas weapon without the required permit.”
This was stated in a communiqué issued by the Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the spokesperson for the Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Prosecutor Piotr A. Skiba, in the investigation concerning criminal threats allegedly directed at the police commander in Piaseczno, “alongside the investigative theory identifying the suspect as the perpetrator of the criminal threats, it is currently impossible to rule out the alternative possibility that the offence was committed by another person or persons.”
“The circumstances surrounding the alleged physical and psychological abuse of a close family member continue to create a genuine risk of obstruction of justice by the suspect, who could interfere with the course of the proceedings, in particular by disrupting the investigative process through influencing evidence obtained from personal sources, both those who have given incriminating testimony against him and those who are yet to be questioned in connection with this offence. The testimony of these individuals may be of significant importance in determining Leszek K.’s criminal liability, both with regard to the statutory elements of the offence and the period during which it was allegedly committed. These circumstances justified the application of preventive measures other than pre-trial detention,” Skiba added.