Surveillance in a shopping centre, detention away from cameras and a home search carried out in the owner’s absence, the circumstances surrounding the detention of journalist Leszek Kraskowski are raising more and more questions. As Niezalezna.pl has established, police officers from Piaseczno did not record the operation because the police station did not have a single body camera. A key role in the search was played by the journalist’s estranged wife, who is a party to the proceedings.
What did the “operation” to detain journalist Kraskowski look like? According to our information, plainclothes officers from the Piaseczno police station, including officers from the criminal investigation department, had been observing him for a long time.
No recordings and no cameras
The officers followed him, among other places, in and around one of the large shopping centres in Piaseczno. They did not decide to detain him there. Perhaps because those areas are monitored? The police waited until he got into his car. He was then followed and detained only after more than a dozen kilometres, closer to the house where he lives.
None of the officers had cameras. The search of the property was likewise not recorded. Why? As it turns out, on the day of the detention, i.e., 6 June, the district police headquarters in Piaseczno did not have a single body camera at its disposal. Media outlet could hardly believe it. Niezależna.pl confirmed this information with the prosecutor’s office.
A mysterious search
Moreover, journalist Kraskowski was not present during the search carried out at his home. It took place in the presence of a so-called appropriate adult, a third-party witness. In principle, such a person is a witness with no interest in the outcome of the case, for example a spouse, neighbour or officer, whose presence during a search of a flat or another procedural act is intended to ensure its proper conduct and protect the rights of the person being searched. This institution is regulated, among other things, by the Code of Criminal Procedure.
In this particular search, that role was performed, with the consent of the services, by journalist Kraskowski’s wife, a co-owner of the property, from whom he is separated. Niezależna.pl confirmed this information with the prosecutor’s office. At the same time, she is directly a party to the proceedings. Was she interested in protecting materials covered by journalistic privilege that may have been located on the property, or was she even aware of what might fall under such protection?
In a statement, the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office wrote that Leszek Kraskowski’s wife testified that “due to his previous behaviour, she fears that he may harm her or other people.”
“The case files contain information indicating that Leszek K. may be committing acts involving violence; he has numerous entries in police databases, and he has also been charged with abusing his own family,”
investigators stated.
Proceedings were being conducted under the supervision of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Piaseczno concerning an offence under Article 207 § 1 of the Criminal Code, allegedly committed by the journalist to the detriment of his closest family members. The case had been suspended because, as investigators claim in their statement, “the suspect fails to appear when summoned and procedural actions cannot be carried out with him.”
It turns out that after journalist Kraskowski was detained in another case, concerning threats and illegal possession of a weapon, and after charges were brought, the case of the alleged harassment of his family was immediately joined to it by the prosecutor’s office. Why? As Piotr Skiba, spokesman for the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office, explained to us, it was done “for reasons of procedural economy.”
The Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office announced on Monday that it would analyse the files of the investigation conducted against Leszek K. “in terms of the correctness and justification of the procedural actions taken.”
The journalist, known for revealing information inconvenient to Roman Giertych, has been remanded in custody for three months.