Polish prosecutor examines Children's Ombudsman over child removal intervention

Criminal notification against the ombudsman

The National Prosecutor's Office has received a formal notification alleging abuse of power and false accusation by Poland's Children's Rights Ombudsman Monika Horna-Cieślak. The notification, submitted following an intervention involving a family in the Białołęka district of Warsaw, will be reviewed by the District Prosecutor's Office in Szczecin. Legal provisions cited in the referral include Article 231 Paragraph 1 of the Penal Code for abuse of public power and Article 234 of the Penal Code for false accusation. The case follows reporting that detailed an August 2026 street altercation that led to the emergency removal of two young children from their home.

The Białołęka street confrontation

The controversy originated when Horna-Cieślak walked along a pavement in Białołęka and observed a mother pulling and shouting at her child near a pedestrian crossing. After the ombudsman confronted her, the mother reportedly responded with vulgarities. Horna-Cieślak then alerted the police, leading officers to issue an immediate eviction order and restraining notice against both parents. Consequently, the family's three-year-old and four-year-old children were taken and placed in an institutional care facility. Neither attending police officers, the court guardian, nor the family court had established grounds for immediate removal. The family court subsequently ordered the children's immediate return, noting in its reasoning that the state apparatus was deployed in a manner disproportionate to the event and that the ombudsman's intervention bore characteristics of institutional violence and an attempt to leverage official authority.

Government reaction and prosecutor review

Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek addressed the matter during an interview on RMF FM, confirming that he intends to review the court's reasoning and assess whether an abuse of power took place. Żurek stated that while any citizen should respond when a child is harmed, interventions must remain measured and within legal parameters.

“We should never let emotions take over, even in matters as sensitive as the welfare of a child, because we can cause them greater harm by unlawfully placing them in some children's home or shelter.”

Scrutiny over justice ministry contracts

In parallel with the Białołęka case, Horna-Cieślak faces scrutiny regarding 16 civil contracts she signed with the Institute of Justice between December 2016 and December 2023, while the institution was overseen by former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. Documents show the institute paid Horna-Cieślak 223,680 PLN for 2,767 recorded hours across seven years, with hourly pay rising from 78 PLN to 105 PLN. The initial December 2016 agreement was signed by then-director Marcin Romanowski, and the final contract expired the day before Horna-Cieślak assumed the ombudsman post. The agreements, none of which were preceded by a public tender, initially covered court file analysis before shifting to legislative drafting, including the child protection statute known as Lex Kamilek alongside judge Agnieszka Matysek.

Initial contract (2016)78

Final contract (2023)105

Initial contract (2016)

78 PLN/h

Final contract (2023)

105 PLN/h

Data from the article text

Ombudsman response to contract revelations

Horna-Cieślak responded in a public statement on X, noting that her collaboration with the Institute of Justice and the Ministry of Justice was publicly available information. She stated that bank records indicate an average net income of approximately 2,200 PLN per month over the seven-year period, during which she worked on six adopted pieces of child safety legislation. She also maintained that her work on the Lex Kamilek draft occurred outside regular hours without compensation prior to its parliamentary submission.

“People who care about the safety of children cooperate with every political force.”