EU Poland: Communist Methods Are Back
- The priest was arrested by hooded police officers and immediately sentenced to three months' provisional detention.
- Olszewski is still in prison, where he will remain at least until September, and there are still no specific charges against him.
- A case has been opened against the Profeto Foundation, of which Olszewski is president.
- The Catholic foundation runs a large centre, 45 rooms, 24 hours a day, for children and women, victims of violence, from all over Poland.
- The aim of the persecution is to take the centre away from Profeto and give it to a group in line with the EU.
- Among the general accusations against Olszewski are 'administrative and management offences', 'abuse of power by a public official' and 'causing damage in business transactions'. The maximum penalty is 10 years' imprisonment.
- The prosecution's main allegation is that the Profeto Foundation took part in a competition for a grant from the Ministry of Justice to build Poland's largest centre for helping victims of crime.
- The prosecution claims that the foundation "should not have participated" because it had "too little experience" in managing this type of centre although no Polish organisation had such experience because it was the first project of its kind in the country.
- The prosecutors also claim that Profeto Foundation should not have won the competition because other participating organisations had "better and more advantageous offers", a claim that is not supported by the competition documents.
- The prosecutors even accuse Olszewski of causing damage to the state treasury by winning the competition (sic).
- Twelve hours after the arrest on his way to prison in Warsaw, the agents stopped at a large petrol station with sirens to take Olszewski to the toilet, and then ordered hot dogs for themselves but not for their handcuffed victim who they exposed to those present, who took photographs of the scene.
- Father Olszewski was not allowed to see a lawyer for the first 24 hours after his arrest. "This is the first time something like this has happened to me," said his lawyer, Krzysztof Wąsowski.
- Earlier, the prosecution had wanted to question the lawyer "as a witness" because he had worked with Profeto for years. Questioning a defence lawyer "as a witness" is illegal.
- The prosecution did everything it could to prevent the lawyer from seeing the case files.
- After arriving in prison, a guard told him: "Welcome to hell".
- The priest had his first meal after 60 hours when his lawyer brought him a parcel from his brother in court.
- Olszewski was deprived of the possibility of going to the toilet and for the first two weeks he was awakened at all hours of the night by an alarm clock and a light, methods used for "terrorists".
- In his cell, he begged the agents to give him some tap water: they brought him water in the bottle that was in the cell. In the morning, when he asked to be taken to the toilet, he was told: 'Piss in the bottle'.
- There was a camera in the cell, Olszewski was always handcuffed outside the cell. He is kept in solitary confinement.
- He is stripped naked every time he is inspected, when he moves from one ward to another, for example when he goes to the chapel.
- Even the prison officers do not understand why the priest is subjected to such brutal detentions and restrictions.
- The priest began to suffer from claustrophobia and depression.
- The agents were very happy to see that the news of his arrest was widely spread by the media of the regime.
- For example: The regime media lied that Olszewski was arrested "in a hotel" or "in a SPA" while he was at the house of the family of one of the employees of Radio Profeto, which belongs to the Profeto Foundation.
- Like in Communist times, Father Olszewski's arrest was prepared by the regime's media with a defamation campaign.
- Two female employees of the Ministry of Justice involved in the same case are in a similar situation to Father Olszewski. Both have families.
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