Former priest Michał W. was convicted and sentenced to two months in prison, suspended for three years, for insulting President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and Speaker of the Sejm Szymon Hołownia in Baranów at the end of February 2024. He also insulted Duda on another occasion in December 2023.
The District Court in Poznań stated, according to wPolityce, that the accused “used words commonly considered offensive to describe the indicated persons during a sermon.” He will be supervised by a probation officer for his three years of suspension. However, the judgment is not final, meaning Michał W. can appeal.
Judge Karolina Siwierska stated that despite being excommunicated by Pope Francis, the former Salesian leads a religious community where he celebrates “masses” and delivers sermons touching on the political and social situation in the country. These sermons are published on a website.
The judge’s ruling noted his sermon from December 2023, in which the accused called Duda “a buffoon,” “a scoundrel,” “a Pharisee,” and “a stinker.” In February 2024, he called both Duda and Tusk “traitors” and “scum,” while labeling Hołownia “a wimp.”
“These terms do not fall within the limits of permissible criticism,” the judge said, calling them “clearly offensive and contemptuous in nature.”
“The accused’s actions exhausted the elements of the crime with which he was charged,” she added.
“It is not that freedom of speech is unlimited and that you can say whatever you want and wherever you want, because words have a lot of power. Words can hurt, mislead people. Words can also encourage evil, to commit crimes. That is why words must be weighed, used carefully and be responsible for them. Meanwhile, the accused has already been punished five times for his statements in which he humiliated, insulted, insulted and defamed other people. His sermons are filled with aggression, hate and so-called hate speech. And if God is love, then there was no God in the accused’s sermons. And I say this with regret and great sadness,” her judgment read.
Noting that his previous crimes were punished only with lesser restrictions of liberty and fines, which “did not have any effect,” the court now believes the threat of prison is required.
“If the accused does not commit a crime and respects the legal order within the next three years, the prison sentence will never be executed, so we can say that the further fate of this sentence depends on the attitude of the accused, on his behavior,” the judge noted.