Dariusz Sas and Artur Kuczyński, together with three other activists, appeared at the court in Bolesławiec on Tuesday, 10 August. They were prosecuted by the Prevention Division of the Bolesławiec County Police Headquarters. The police brought two charges: the defendants had obstructed or attempted to obstruct the course of an unbanned assembly and had failed to maintain a distance of at least 2 metres from one another, although a government regulation requiring precisely this was in force at the time.
During Andrzej Duda’s campaign visit to Bolesławiec in July 2020, the activists did not welcome the president with applause but booed him. After the president left, the police surrounded the group of activists and recorded their details. We wrote about it in the article Dozens of police officers checked the identities of five people and a child after Andrzej Duda’s rally.
The court decided to discontinue the proceedings arising from the police charges.
The court found that the defendants had disrupted the course of the assembly by whistling. However, the social harm caused by this conduct did not violate the rules of conduct accepted in society. Freedom to express criticism in the public sphere is considerably greater than in the private sphere.
The activists received legal support and were represented by attorney Dominik Naglik of the Dominik Naglik law firm.