2026-01-01 21:02
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2026-01-01 21:02
Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek wants to designate, by regulation, several prosecutor's offices specializing in prosecuting hate speech, including that against Ukrainians. The activities will involve, among others: prosecutor Maciej Młynarczyk. – the OKO.press portal reported on Thursday.
According to information from OKO.press, the Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek wants to appoint, by regulation, units that will prosecute crimes based on nationality and religion, or the promotion of totalitarianism.
“Consultations are currently underway on the shape of the regulation and a discussion is underway as to whether it will be handled by designated district prosecutor's offices – currently there are 16 throughout the country – or district prosecutor's offices,” the portal reports.
As it was added, prosecutor's offices “would create teams composed of several prosecutors who would specialize in this type of crimes and would also deal with other cases.” According to information from OKO.press, the appointment of such units has already been decided and may happen in February this year.
“An appropriate regulation is being prepared. Designated units will specialize in prosecuting hate. This will apply to broadly understood hate. It does not matter whether the victims are Ukrainians, Jews, Roma, or a Polish citizen who has different views,” Minister Żurek said in an interview with the website.
The minister also emphasized that “such specialization is important because it will change the approach to this type of issues. And the problem of hate speech in Poland is becoming more and more serious. All the more so as the problem is growing – especially towards Ukrainians – and new challenges are caused by the development of artificial intelligence, which generates the so-called deepfakes.”
According to OKO.press, according to the draft regulation, those designated to prosecute hate speech include, among others: 11 district prosecutor's offices in Łomża, Bydgoszcz, Sosnowiec, Kielce, Kraków, Lublin, Radomsko, Poznań, Przemyśl, Gorzów Wielkopolski, Opole. Hate will also be dealt with by the capital's district prosecutor's offices – Warsaw Ursynów, Warsaw Żoliborz, Warsaw Praga Południe and Piaseczna.
“The work of all units is to be coordinated by the Warsaw-Prague District Prosecutor's Office. A team of several prosecutors is to be established to deal with the most important hate speech investigations in Poland. It will also train prosecutors in this specialization and set directions in these investigations,” the portal wrote.
According to information from OKO.press, one of the members of this team is prosecutor Maciej Młynarczyk, who has been a prosecutor for 14 years and specializes in hate speech. (PAP)
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