Polish appeals court cuts hate speech sentence for Wojciech Olszański to 18 months

Appellate ruling reduces community service term

On 2 September 2026, the Court of Appeals in Gdańsk announced a final, legally binding judgment in the criminal case against far-right internet broadcaster Wojciech Olszański, widely known by the alias Jaszczur. The decision modified a previous ruling issued in May 2025 by the Regional Court in Toruń, which had sentenced Olszański to two years of community service for inciting hatred against both Jewish and Ukrainian people. Presiding Judge Rafał Ryś reduced the penalty to one year and six months of restriction of liberty. Under the terms of this altered sentence, Olszański must perform 20 hours of unpaid, supervised social work per month for the duration of the eighteen-month period.

Legal boundaries of political speech

The charges against Olszański originated from a public speech he gave on 13 August 2022 at Rynek Street in Grudziądz during the All-Poland General Tadeusz Rozwadowski March. The appellate panel affirmed that Olszański committed a crime by publicly inciting hatred against people of Jewish nationality, attributing to them hostile intentions, deceitful motives, and actions designed to undermine the economic welfare of Polish citizens, while portraying them as enemies of Poland deserving of death. In the justification, the court explained that Polish penal law does not penalize nationalist beliefs defined as patriotism and treating the nation as a primary value, but stressed that the methods used to spread such ideas cannot violate the legal order. Judge Ryś noted that the defendant exceeded these permissible limits in pursuit of applause and publicity.

It is about the form, the tools used to promote these views, about the methods of action used, which must always remain within the limits of the legal order. If they do not fit and the boundary is crossed, then criminal liability arises, and that is precisely what happened in this case.

Re-evaluation of remarks regarding Ukrainians

The sentence reduction resulted directly from the appellate court's reassessment of Olszański's remarks concerning Ukrainian people. While the first-instance court in Toruń had treated both sets of remarks as criminal incitement, the Gdańsk court found that the statements regarding Ukrainians were relatively few in comparison and remained within the boundaries of lawful political speech. The judges characterized his critical statements regarding the display of Ukrainian flags in public areas and the legal status of the Ukrainian language as permissible, although sharp, public opinion rather than an offense under the penal code.

Publication order and defendant reaction

In addition to the modified term of community service, the appellate court left the remainder of the first-instance verdict intact. Olszański is required to have an extract of the judgment publicly displayed for three months on the Public Information Bulletin website of the Regional Court in Toruń. The appellate panel also exempted Olszański from procedural costs for the appeal and court fees for both instances, directing the State Treasury to cover those expenses. Olszański, whose political party Rodacy Kamraci was removed from the official registry of political parties in November 2025 following its establishment in 2023, appeared in the courtroom without defense counsel or a prosecutor. Following the proceedings, Olszański spoke to reporters about the outcome.

I received a verdict and I will carry it out.