Night rally behind Trzaskowski's banners. The thief will pay dearly for this

A 33-year-old man was sentenced by a court in Ostrołęka (Masovian Voivodeship) to a fine for stealing 30 election banners of the Polish presidential candidate Rafał Trzaskowski. He will also pay for damage caused to the election committee, the District Prosecutor's Office in Ostrołęka announced on Friday.

The case concerns the theft of banners in April 2025 in Ostrołęka during the election campaign before the elections of the President of Poland.

Elżbieta Edyta Łukasiewicz, spokeswoman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Ostrołęka, said that on March 9, the local district court found Tobiasz B. guilty. The man has to pay a fine totaling PLN 3,600. zloty.

The court also ordered the accused to pay the injured Election Committee of the Candidate for the President of the Republic of Poland, Rafał Trzaskowski, the amount of PLN 2,988.90 as compensation for the damage, the spokeswoman said.

The judgment is final.

He was tempted by PLN 300, now he will pay thousands

April 14, 2025, a few minutes after 4.00 Tobiasz B. drove his car to one of the properties at Al. Polish Army in Ostrołęka. He got out of the car, tore off 30 election banners with the image of Rafał Trzaskowski from the fence and took them to the car. Then the man hung two banners near the bus station in Ostrołęka. He took the remaining 28 banners out of the car and left them at the repair ramp behind the garages at ul. Broniewskiego in Ostrołęka.

Tobiasz B. was charged with stealing banners worth a total of PLN 4.8 thousand. zloty. The man pleaded guilty to the crime he was accused of. He said that he was persuaded to steal the banners by Andrzej M., who promised him PLN 300 in return.

During the interrogation, 69-year-old Andrzej M. denied that he knew the perpetrator and that he ordered him to steal election materials.

The preparatory proceedings against Tobiasz B. ended with an application for a conviction against Tobiasz B. being submitted on September 24, 2025 to the District Court in Ostrołęka. In turn, materials related to Andrzej M.'s story were excluded from separate prosecutorial proceedings.

– On September 30, 2025, the investigation was discontinued due to the lack of data sufficient to justify the suspicion of committing an offense – said prosecutor Łukasiewicz. (PAP)

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