Father Michal Olszewski is a charismatic Polish, Dehonian priest, very socially active. He directs the Profeto Foundation, which a few years ago conceived a project to create a help center for people affected by violence. He wanted to call it an Archipelago: islands free of violence. With Archipelago, Father Olszewski wanted to help, with specialized personnel, people (families, children, singles, women, men) affected by physical, mental, psychological or economic violence. He wanted to offer assistance: provision of housing, protection from the perpetrator of violence, legal, psychological, methodological and spiritual assistance; everything had to be offered free. The Foundation had participated in a competition to obtain a financial contribution granted by the Ministry of Justice for the construction of this largest help center for crime victims in Poland, and in a few years it managed to construct the buildings in the archipelago.
But on Tuesday, March 26, in the middle of Holy Week, a very serious event occurred: Father Olszewski was arrested by officers and immediately sentenced by the Warsaw-Mokotów District Court to three months of temporary arrest in connection with the Fund case of Justice (later arrest was extended for another three months). It must be said that the arrest of Father Olszewski was preceded and accompanied by a hateful media campaign to denigrate the priest. The fact is that it resembles the “old” methods of the communist regime, when false materials were manufactured to discredit the clergy.
As the defender of p. Olszewski, the lawyer Krzysztof Wąsowski, who could not see his client for 24 hours after the arrest, there were no grounds for the arrest and that the accusations made against the Prophet Foundation headed by the priest are unfounded. The main accusation made by the Prosecutor’s Office against Fr. Olszewski is that his foundation participated in a competition to obtain a financial contribution granted by the Ministry of Justice for the construction of the largest help center for crime victims in Poland, and had “very little experience” in managing this type of center. (it is added that no organization in Poland has such experience, since it was supposed to be the first project of its kind in Poland). Prosecutors also stated that the other entities that had participated in this tender had, according to the prosecution, better and more advantageous offers. This accusation is denied by the tender documentation.
In early June, as the three-month period of temporary arrest was about to expire, the National Prosecutor’s Office filed new charges against Father Olszewski, accusing him of having committed the crime of “money laundering.” According to lawyer Wasowski, this is a completely absurd accusation. How can you launder money cleanly? – asks the lawyer. If the money comes from the Justice Fund of the Ministry of Justice, how can it be dirty? The administrator of the Justice Fund, that is, the Minister of Justice, has entered into a legal agreement with the Profeto Foundation. Today, the Prosecutor’s Office is trying to demonstrate that this legal money has become ‘dirty’ and should have been laundered. This makes no sense! But these “accusations”, announced first by the media and not by the Prosecutor’s Office (!), evidently served to justify the “need” to prolong the detention of Father Olszewski that occurred. The priest is expected to remain in prison until September.
The former Minister of Justice who had the aforementioned Justice Fund clearly said that the arrest of Father Olszewski has a purely political character in Poland in the midst of the political revenge carried out by the current rulers. Ziobro recalled that thanks to funding from the Justice Fund, Father Michal was able to found “a large center, 45 rooms, 24 hours of daily assistance, for children and women victims of violence from all over Poland.” Well, but it is run by a priest and a priest has no right to do this. “It must be destroyed, socially destroyed, his organization must be destroyed and then what he has built can be stolen and perhaps given away to some sympathizer of the ruling party.”
Unfortunately, it must be said that the current Tusk government, which includes left-wing ex-communist forces, is the most anticlerical government in Poland after the turning point of 1989. Father Olszewski’s case is therefore not accidental, but reflects the political line of the current rulers.
As Father Olszewski remains detained for a fourth month, terrifying facts have emerged about the first 60 hours after his arrest. It is a faithful account of the events written by the priest’s relatives, told during their visits to prison. It is a shocking description of the ordeal suffered, evidently orchestrated by the National Prosecutor’s Office governed by Minister Bodnar.
Father Olszewski remembers being woken up by a group of people in balaclavas banging on the door. During transport to Warsaw, Father Michal was taken in handcuffs to the gas station bathroom, and after leaving the bathroom, ABW officers ordered hot dogs for them while he was handcuffed in the middle of the gas station store. People – the priest remembers – took photos of me and the agents with balaclavas. I also asked them to buy something to eat (twelve hours had already passed since my arrest), but they replied that “they don’t buy.” I had my first meal in 60 hours when my lawyer brought me a package from my brother to court!
This was the beginning of continued harassment and inhuman behavior, because the priest was treated according to a special procedure reserved for the most dangerous criminals, such as terrorists. Father Michal says: When I returned to my cell, I cleaned the previous tenant’s house and went to bed dead tired. But shortly after, the light suddenly came on. Then I discovered that he was under the “special supervision” regime. So here’s the camera, the handcuffs, even when you go out in the morning, the isolation from others […], the alarm clock with the light on all night, at any time! This happened in the first two weeks.
Despite the inconsistency of the accusations, Father Olszewski was denied house arrest and the priest remained in prison. All of this happens in the silence of the Western media, so concerned about the lack of rule of law when Poland was governed by the previous PIS party government. And all this happens when, to get Salis out of Orban’s “terrible” prisons, she is nominated to the European Parliament. Today Salis is in Parliament and Father Olszewski is in prison. Two weights, two measures.
