Fr. Olszewski’s detention is politically motivated and sets new precedent in post-communist Poland

“The government has promised its voters that it will hold the PiS government accountable, especially regarding the Justice Fund. This is how the new government is showing that they are holding their predecessors accountable. It seems that Fr. Olszewski may be a victim of this process, as are two female officials from the Ministry of Justice, who have also been in jail with him for six months,” says attorney Krzysztof Wąsowski, defense attorney for Fr. Michał Olszewski and one of the two female officials detained in the same case on the orders of Polish prosecutors. This happened shortly after the unlawful change of Poland’s National Prosecutor by Justice Minister Adam Bodnar and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and shortly after the creation of a special Team #2 within the National Prosecutor’s office to investigate how the Justice Fund was used by today’s opposition while it was in power, i.e. until last December.
“The whole fuss about Fr. Olszewski is an absolutely bizarre thing,” says Wąsowski. “Previously, of course, there have been cases of priests being jailed, but as a rule, these were cases of sexual misconduct because there were some priests who simply betrayed their mission. That is unless we go back to communist times. Father Michał is sick with celiac disease and thus requires a specific diet. He was tortured for the first 60 hours after he was detained, from his apprehension on Holy Tuesday until Holy Thursday, when he was formally arrested, and this is what Fr. Michał remembers to this day. I took the liberty of making a very bold comparison, that even Primate Wyszyński, who is a symbol of martyrdom for the faith, for the Church during the Stalinist era in Poland, was allowed to use the toilet in a dignified manner.”
“It was unthinkable, even during communist or Stalinist times, for a woman to be kept under watch by men while she was washing and taking care of her bodily needs,” the lawyer further says with visible outrage, speaking of this detained female official, whom he also represents. “This is the year 2024. Poland has been in the European Union for 20 years, since May 1, 2004. Previously, under the United Right governments led by Law and Justice (PiS), we never heard about such practices. In the eyes of the law, this should not be possible, but in this case, the Prosecutor’s Office has presented a new charge based on the allegation that the former Ministry of Justice was an organized criminal group, as well as on the claim that by applying for grants from this “criminal group,” Fr. Olszewski became - probably inadvertently - a member of a criminal group. The mafia, one might say.”
“This is a very dangerous sign for civil servants, because any official who wants to work for the state, for the public administration given what is happening in Poland today, can assume that he or she is essentially joining an organized crime group, that he or she can be treated accordingly by the next government. And this also goes for anyone who is at the head of a non-governmental organization that applies for state subsidies in a legal manner.”
“I would also add that in the case of this alleged organized crime group, the prosecution delayed bringing any charges for quite a long time. The first to publicly demand charges was Donald Tusk, the current Prime Minister of the Polish government. He published a tweet on the X portal (formerly Twitter) immediately after the arrest of Fr. Olszewski, in which he demanded that the prosecutor’s office bring such charges linked to participating in a criminal group.
This interview with Krzysztof Wąsowski, Fr. Olszewski’s attorney, was conducted by Olivier Bault, the director of communications of the Ordo Iuris Institute.
The Ordo Iuris Institute has filed an amicus brief to the court in Fr. Olszewski’s case, pointing to numerous violations of his rights at the time of his detention in March this year.
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