Poland's Children's Ombudsman Files Criminal Reports Over Online Threats and Hate Speech

Threats directed at the ombudsman on Instagram

Poland's Ombudsman for Children's Rights, Monika Horna-Cieślak, submitted two criminal notifications regarding threats and defamatory content directed at her and her institution. Spokesperson for the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office, prosecutor Piotr Antoni Skiba, confirmed the filings on 1 October 2026. The initial notification details a series of vulgar insults and direct warnings of physical assault sent to Horna-Cieślak and employees of the Office of the Ombudsman for Children's Rights through the social media application Instagram. According to prosecutors, the communications constitute attempts to use violence or unlawful threats to compel a public official, or individuals assisting them, into undertaking or abandoning official legal duties. The filing also covers the criminal offense of insulting a public official during the execution of statutory responsibilities. To address the personal danger described in the complaint, prosecutors immediately petitioned regional police commanders to assess protective measures for the ombudsman and her staff.

In connection with the content of the notification and the motion formulated therein, the prosecutor's office applied to the Warsaw Police Commander to consider the application of protective measures for the victims.

Online hate speech and jurisdictional transfer

The second notification submitted by the ombudsman alleges offenses involving the insult of a public official and racism in an online publication. The filing focuses on digital material published on the website Gazeta Warszawska under a section titled Jewish occupation. That publication was titled with a statement attributed to a lawmaker, reading "Poseł M. Kowalski: Pani M. Horna-Cieślak sprzeniewierzyła się przede wszystkim dobru dziecka". A preliminary review conducted by prosecutorial staff established that the website hosted content that systematically incited ethnic hatred and insulted non-Polish populations. Both submissions were originally lodged with the Warsaw-Śródmieście District Prosecutor's Office. Because the matters involve suspected bias-motivated offenses, they were formally reallocated to the Warsaw-Ursynów District Prosecutor's Office, which holds specialized territorial jurisdiction over hate crimes.

A preliminary analysis of the content of the aforementioned website leads to the conclusion that the site contains content inciting hatred and insulting populations of non-Polish nationality.

Counter-allegations over the Białołęka intervention

These filings follow a separate criminal notification submitted against Horna-Cieślak herself to the National Prosecutor's Office during the last week of September 2026. That complaint alleges abuse of authority and the making of false accusations following an incident involving a family in the Białołęka district of Warsaw, as reported by the news website Zero.pl. Horna-Cieślak recounted that she witnessed a mother physically jerking a child in public and intervened, which resulted in the mother verbally abusing her. The ombudsman then reported the confrontation to local police and initiated an intervention before a family court, arguing that the children should be removed from parental custody. Police investigators subsequently concluded that legal grounds for child removal were absent. The family court ordered the children returned to their parents and noted that Horna-Cieślak may have committed acts bearing hallmarks of institutional violence.

Prosecutorial assignments across two jurisdictions

The complaint alleging statutory power abuse against Horna-Cieślak was transferred from the National Prosecutor's Office to the District Prosecutor's Office in Szczecin for formal review. Concurrently, the Warsaw-Ursynów District Prosecutor's Office is tasked with investigating the criminal threats delivered on Instagram and the racist publication on Gazeta Warszawska. Prosecutors in Warsaw await determinations from the Warsaw Police Commander regarding the deployment of official security details for the affected ombudsman personnel. The concurrent legal procedures divide the disputes across two separate regions of the Polish prosecutorial system. Horna-Cieślak now occupies the position of a reporting victim in Warsaw while facing scrutiny as an accused official under the review handled in Szczecin.