Leszek Kraskowski, the author of a number of high-profile investigative reports, was deprived of his right to legal counsel for several days and subsequently placed in pre-trial detention for three months. Only a few hours passed between a complaint filed on Saturday by the head of the Piaseczno police department and the search of the journalist’s home and his arrest. What secrets were hidden in the computers and phones seized by investigators?
As Niezalezna.pl has learned, investigative journalist Leszek Kraskowski was arrested on Saturday, June 6, at 7:40 p.m. It was the very same day on which, according to prosecutors, he allegedly sent an email containing threats directed at Piaseczno police chief Maciej Cepil. A search was carried out on Saturday, during which a gas pistol was found in the journalist’s possession. On Monday, June 8, prosecutors submitted a motion requesting that Kraskowski be held in pre-trial detention for three months. On Tuesday, a court in Piaseczno approved the request. The proceedings took place without the participation of a defence lawyer.
Denied the right to a defence since Saturday
According to the prosecutor’s office, the evidence in the case consisted not only of the email in question but also of public posts published by Kraskowski on X.
The journalist’s attorney was informed of the detention hearing by a court employee shortly before 10:00 a.m. today. The hearing itself began at 10:00 a.m. The lawyer had not been informed at all, despite the client’s request and the lawyer’s right to be notified, of Kraskowski’s arrest and the search conducted on June 6.
Investigators searched not only the journalist’s car but also his residence. A detailed inventory and description of the seized items was prepared. This raises an important question: what materials related to Kraskowski’s journalistic work are now in the possession of investigators?
The extraordinary speed with which prosecutors and law enforcement acted is demonstrated by the fact that, between Saturday, June 6, and the morning of June 9, an expert report on firearms and ammunition had already been completed. According to Niezależna.pl information, prosecutors are also in possession of copies of the journalist’s medical records.
The first, unsuccessful attempt to contact Kraskowski’s lawyer took place only on Monday, June 8, after 4:30 p.m., when the District Prosecutor’s Office in Piaseczno called him. The attorney attempted to return the call, but without success; no one answered. Beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, he again tried to contact investigators, once more without result. It was only shortly before the hearing, when it was already too late for him to attend, that a court employee finally contacted him.
According to the information, the prosecutor’s office prepared an official note stating that attempts had been made to contact the defence lawyer. We are curious to see its contents. Aside from a single unsuccessful phone call, the lawyer received no text message or email from investigators.
Threats against the journalist and police inaction
In recent days, Kraskowski filed a criminal complaint concerning an incident at his home. An unidentified man held a knife to his throat. According to the information available to Niezależna.pl, the journalist waited three hours for a police patrol to arrive, a fact he himself confirmed.
"Some guy in Piaseczno was waving a knife in my face (and holding a canister of pepper spray in the other hand), repeating: 'You've crossed the wrong people. You have seven days to leave the country, otherwise we'll finish you off. We'll throw you out of your house. We'll kill you. Get the hell to Albania.'
'I'll stab you, and when the police arrive, I'll say you attacked me and that it was self-defence.'
The police arrived after my report... three hours later. They identified the guy, who was so confident that he was sitting calmly in the apartment as if nothing had happened, and... let him go. He simply stated that he had never said any of those things. Seriously," Kraskowski wrote about the incident on X.
According to the journalist, the attacker showed him a laptop displaying a website titled “The Whole Truth About Leszek Kraskowski.”
“It’s hosted on a foreign server. It can’t be removed. We even have recordings of your arguments with your wife, your text messages. We have everything. We know you were treated for depression and bipolar disorder. We know you texted your wife saying you were fed up with everything and wanted to commit suicide. We know everything about you, you bastard. We’ll publish it all, and Piński will help us. We even know where your adult daughter Natalia lives. Leave Piński and Giertych alone. You got away with it for 20 years, but it’s over now. You’ve crossed the wrong people. Either you disappear to Albania and keep quiet, or you’re finished. No one will believe you anymore. People will find out you’re crazy,”
Kraskowski recounted on X.
From complainant to detainee
What did the Piaseczno police do after receiving the journalist’s report regarding criminal threats? Kraskowski monitored the case himself, sending emails asking for updates on the progress of the investigation.
In the meantime, it was Kraskowski who was detained in connection with the matter because court records allegedly marked him “in red” as a person who was to be arrested.
How did such a situation arise?
It began with an online dispute involving Jan Piński, a commentator whom Kraskowski describes as an informal spokesman for Roman Giertych. Piński filed a private criminal defamation case against him in a Warsaw court.
As reported by Wnet Radio, Kraskowski was staying in Albania at the time, recovering from earlier events in Poland. Several months earlier, unknown perpetrators fired pellets at his car, and prosecutors quickly discontinued the investigation. Because the journalist was physically unable to receive correspondence sent to his Polish address, Piński began circulating information online claiming that Kraskowski was hiding from the justice system.
According to Wnet Radio, Judge Krzysztof Ptasiewicz subsequently issued an order for a nationwide search for the journalist in order to enforce a decision concerning pre-trial detention.
Kraskowski later stated in an interview with Wnet Radio that the detention order itself had been the result of a serious procedural error. Court representatives reportedly explained that pre-trial detention is not applied in cases initiated through private prosecution and that the entire situation resulted from a “documentation error.”
“I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands”
Three days ago, Kraskowski published another dramatic post on social media:
“I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands. The Polish Police will not protect me; I have absolutely no doubt about that. A weekend at the shooting range, just like in the early 1990s. But I’m not grateful to Donald Tusk’s team for making me feel 30 years younger today.”
He attached, among other things, a photograph of a pistol. Shortly afterward, he was arrested.