A man condemned to 5 months of imprisonment for racist threats

Alert DateDecember 30, 2012 Country: Poland Address: Opole Racism and discrimination phenomena: Afrophobia
General Type: Racist discourse, Hate crime Groups affected / Interested in: Africans/black people Strands: Racism

A 31-year-old inhabitant of Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Jarosław W., was condemned by the District Court in Opole for 5 months of imprisonment suspended for 2 years for racist threats addressed to a black woman. He also has to pay 500 PLN of punitive damages.  The court found him guilty of the racist threats as the victim might have feared of them „even if in the mind of the defendant a thought to put them into effect did not arise“. The defendant and the victim who has resided in Poland for 12 years, live in the neighbourhood. Once, the woman cut in on Jarosław W. while driving a car. A few days later, they met in their housing estate and the man insulted and threatened the woman calling her a „nigger“ and asking to leave Poland in a vulgar way.  In the court room Jarosław W. apologized to her but denied being racist and called the incident an ordinary quarrel. The judgement is not yet legally binding. If the verdict remain unchanged in the second instance, it would be an important signal that also a hate speech constitutes an offence and won't be tolerated in Poland.

Source: