Police handcuff husband of TV Republika journalist at Warsaw cemetery, sparking outcry

The detention

On Sunday, 1 November 2026, police stopped a car outside the cemetery on ul. Fosa in Służewiec, Warsaw, where Danuta Holecka, a journalist with Telewizja Republika, had gone with her husband to visit the grave of their son. Officers checked the vehicle, then detained the husband, whom MP Marek Jakubiak said is close to 70 years old, and handcuffed him behind his back before leading him to a patrol car. Telewizja Republika, which broadcast a recording of the scene, said the reason given was incorrect parking. Its head, Jarosław Olechowski, said the couple had come to the grave of a son who died more than two years earlier.

The police version

Police from the Warsaw II district, which covers Mokotów, Wilanów and Ursynów, said the driver had entered an area marked with a B-1 sign, which bans traffic in both directions and applied because traffic arrangements near the cemetery had been changed temporarily. According to the police statement, the man did not follow officers' instructions and refused to give his personal details, so handcuffs were used to stop him walking away. The same statement said he reported feeling unwell and that officers called an ambulance. Police also said the intervention had no link to the passengers' identity or their professional work.

Karolina Gałecka, spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, rejected the picture of an attack on the family in a post on X.

“Presenting this intervention as an attack on a family omits its key circumstances and is manipulation.”

Footage and the family's account

Telewizja Republika aired footage in which an officer can be heard saying that the man had reported health problems and that an ambulance was on its way. Holecka's son, who said he is a doctor, asked to check his father's condition. When officers asked for proof of his professional standing, he replied that he was not obliged to carry it and gave his licence number, after which an officer agreed to let him approach. On the recording, Danuta Holecka can be heard saying that her husband had been knocked onto the pavement.

Political reaction

Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of Law and Justice, wrote on X that the husband had been pushed down and handcuffed during a check at his son's grave, calling it absurd and a sign of how the government operates.

“They have no respect for anything sacred!”

He also linked the episode to what he called pressure on media critical of the government, accused the ruling side of illegally taking over the Constitutional Tribunal, and warned that more such cases would follow. MP Marek Jakubiak told Telewizja Republika that he would join proceedings under the act on the mandate of MPs and senators. He said he had been at the scene half an hour before the incident and suspected a political motive behind the officers' conduct. Lawyer Artur Wdowczyk, who said he had been in contact with Holecka, argued that officers had clearly overstepped their powers by demanding identification from her husband and that the officer should have given his own details.

“These are methods straight out of martial law.”

Former deputy justice minister Sebastian Kaleta also commented on the detention.