Punishment and its enforcement are not justice — it is political revenge, stated Robert Bąkiewicz, referring to Thursday’s decision by Adam Bodnar. The Prosecutor General overturned the suspension of a sentence imposed on the leader of the Border Defence Movement for the alleged violation of the personal inviolability of scandal figure Katarzyna Augustynek (called Grandma Kasia). In this context, Bąkiewicz recalled a key video recording.
On Thursday, Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar announced the lifting of the suspension of Robert Bąkiewicz’s sentence. This concerns the sentence issued in 2023, ordering him to perform one year of unpaid community service for “violating the bodily integrity” of the well-known activist Katarzyna Augustynek, along with a compensatory payment of 10,000 PLN to the activist.
The sentence had previously been suspended due to a pardon procedure initiated by former Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro. However, as Bodnar noted, “a presidential decision on the pardon has yet to be made.” But that’s not all. A further argument for enforcing the punishment against the leader of the Border Defence Movement is, as stated, “we all see how the convicted person has behaved since the verdict was issued.”
Bodnar’s decision has sparked controversy in legal circles. Most legal professionals view the move as politically motivated repression. “I wonder what the police officers who were publicly insulted by activist ‘Grandma Kasia’ must be feeling now, considering that her case — based on a private complaint — has attracted intervention from the Prosecutor General himself,” commented attorney Bartosz Lewandowski.
The case concerns an incident from 2020, during the so-called women’s strikes—a wave of vulgar protests held in front of churches following the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling on abortion. In response, patriotic groups began forming to protect sacred sites. During one such encounter between these opposing groups, both Bąkiewicz and Augustynek were present. The leader of the Border Defence Movement specifically reminded the public of which incident this was.
“Here is my so-called ‘victim,’ defended by Adam Bodnar. This video shows what actually happened—the events for which the ‘independent courts’ convicted me. Punishment and its execution are not justice—they are political revenge,” he stated, adding that Bodnar’s true aim is to destroy the Border Defence Movement. “But he will not succeed. We will be the ones who win,” he assured.