Detained Polish journalist Leszek Kraskowski allowed lawyer visit after days of blocked access, describes harsh jail conditions

Arrest and charges

Leszek Kraskowski, an investigative journalist known for exposing information inconvenient to KO parliamentarian Roman Giertych (including matters related to the Polnord company), was arrested on Tuesday, 9 June, in Prażmów. The District Court in Piaseczno ordered a three-month pre-trial detention. The District Prosecutor's Office in Piaseczno charged him with making criminal threats and illegally possessing a gas pistol and ammunition without a permit.

Leszek fled from people he took for thugs. The plainclothes officers were tattooed. My client made a desperate attempt to drive into a place where there are cameras, to seek help.

According to his defence attorney, Kraskowski showed the weapon only in an act of desperation, fearing for his own life, not to threaten officers. The journalist denies sending a threatening email to the district police commander and was prepared to testify under criminal liability as a witness.

Blocked access to legal counsel

For five days following his arrest, Kraskowski was held without contact with his lawyer, Łukasz Pawelski. The attorney stated he repeatedly called the prosecutor's office and the remand centre in Warsaw's Białołęka district, treating the situation as obstruction of access to his client. From the moment of his detention, noted in the protocol, Kraskowski demanded contact with his defence counsel. Access was finally granted on 12 June.

Leszek Kraskowski told me he did not believe I would abandon him and suspected I was being kept away from the proceedings.

Detention conditions and physical state

Pawelski described the conditions under which Kraskowski is being held as scandalous. The journalist was detained wearing short trousers and a light shirt. Despite unfavourable weather, he was taken for walks without adequate clothing. He received trousers only after his lawyer's intervention and was given socks by a fellow inmate.

He is severely bitten by bedbugs; he showed me marks all over his body.

Kraskowski has been assigned the status of a dangerous prisoner, which carries rigorous security measures normally reserved for the most serious offenders and terrorists. When he goes to the bathhouse, he must be handcuffed and then uncuffed at the bathhouse door. The same procedure applies when he enters the exercise yard.

Reaction and determination

Kraskowski asked his lawyer to convey heartfelt thanks to everyone who has stood in his defence. According to Pawelski, the journalist is even more determined to continue his journalistic work. The arrest has triggered a significant response from journalistic circles, opposition politicians, and lawyers, all demanding greater transparency from the prosecutor's office regarding the legal basis for the searches, arrest, and charges.

Starting from the fact that a lawyer has no contact with his client, this is savagery. Absolute savagery, it must be said.

Political reaction has also emerged. Marek Formela, editor-in-chief of Gazeta Gdańska, called the matter a major political mistake that Donald Tusk has recently countersigned with his own person, speaking on the Salon Dziennikarski programme.