Polish court suspends 15-day prison sentence for former dissident Piotr Niemczyk

Suspension of substitute sentence

Former Polish anti-communist opposition activist and former deputy director of intelligence at the State Protection Office (UOP) Piotr Niemczyk was released from the Warszawa-Białołęka detention facility on Friday afternoon, 11 September 2026. Niemczyk had been detained on Tuesday, 8 September 2026, to serve a 15-day substitute arrest term after he did not carry out a court-ordered community service sentence. The District Court for Warsaw-Śródmieście halted the enforcement of the penalty at 14:00 on Friday following an emergency application filed by his defense attorney, Jacek Dubois. The Supreme Court issued a parallel decision to suspend execution following an extraordinary cassation appeal filed by Ombudsman Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram. Niemczyk walked out of the detention facility at approximately 16:00, where he was met by his friend Krzysztof Siemieński.

The climate demonstration and penal order

The legal proceedings stem from a climate demonstration organized by the Last Generation movement on Poniatowski Bridge in Warsaw in May 2025. A Warsaw court sentenced 26 participants to one month of community service under a penal order procedure (Article 500 of the Code of Criminal Procedure), which allows judges to issue rulings without a full trial when facts are deemed clear. The court cited obstruction of traffic and refusal to follow police orders. Niemczyk maintained that he stood on the sidewalk holding a banner rather than blocking the roadway, and stated that the ruling was issued without his direct participation or proper delivery of the verdict document. On 12 August 2026, the court converted the unfulfilled community service into 15 days of substitute arrest.

Medical condition and hunger strike

Niemczyk explained after his release that a severe leg fracture and subsequent surgery had left him using a wheelchair and crutches for ten months, preventing him from carrying out manual community service. He stated that both the local police officer and the probation officer who visited his residence had seen his mobility limitations, yet the court did not account for his physical condition when converting the penalty. While held in a hospital cell in Białołęka, Niemczyk launched a hunger strike to protest the use of penal orders and the lack of due process, ending the fast shortly before his release.

In an interview on TVN24 following his release, Niemczyk reflected on returning to prison decades after his detention under the communist regime:

“It turns out that sitting in prison is just like riding a bicycle: you do not forget it, so I was afraid of it.”

Appeals and institutional response

The detention provoked an appeal signed by more than 40 former communist-era opposition activists, who urged Ombudsman Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram and Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek to intervene. The signatories argued that the imprisonment of an injured demonstrator under a default penal order was unacceptable in a democratic state governed by law. Minister Żurek confirmed Niemczyk's release on Friday on the social media platform X. Defense counsel Dubois noted that the application to suspend the sentence had been submitted on Thursday, citing legal provisions that prohibit substituting community service with arrest when personal circumstances and health prevent performance. The Supreme Court's suspension remains in effect until the Ombudsman's cassation plea, seeking full acquittal, is formally reviewed.