Three Polish Women Face Jail Over ‘blasphemous’ Virgin Mary Image

THREE Polish activists, including Elżbieta Podlesna, above, of Amnesty International, are scheduled to go on trial tomorrow (Wednesday) accused for ‘offending religious beliefs’, according to LGBT+ rights organisation ILGA-Europe. They could each be jailed for up to two years.

The Independent reports that the three were were arrested in 2019 and charged the next year after they stuck up posters of the Virgin Mary adorned with a rainbow halo.

Polish Conservative politician Joachim Brudziński took to Twitter at the time of Podlesna’s arrest in 2019 to announce that someone had been arrested for:

Carrying out a profanation of the Virgin Mary of Częstochowa.

Police arrested and detained Podlesna after her return to Poland from a trip abroad with Amnesty International. An official investigation was then launched in May 2019, resulting in all three women being charged in July 2020.

The trial, supposed to start in November but postponed until this Wednesday (January 13), has since garnered worldwide attention, with a coalition of human rights organisations, including ILGA-Europe and Amnesty International, clubbing together to call for Polish authorities to drop the charges and allow the women to exercise their right to “peaceful activism” and “freedom of expression”.

The groups said in a joint statement that Polish authorities:

Should amend their legislation and bring it in line with international and regional human rights standards and abstain from using it against activists to unduly curtail their right to freedom of expression.

The three have all been charged with “offending religious beliefs”, under article 196 of Poland’s Criminal Code, which states:

Anyone found guilty of intentionally offending religious feelings through public calumny of an object or place of worship liable to a fine, a restriction of liberty, or to imprisonment for a maximum of two years.

Authorities allege that Podlesna and two women identified only as “Anna” and “Joanna”:

Publicly insulted an object of religious worship in the form of this image which offended the religious feelings of others.

The rights coalition said in a joint statement, posted on ILGA-Europe’s website:

The trio supposedly pasted the modified Virgin Mary posters around the central Polish city of Plock, on 29 April 2019, in public spaces such as portable toilets, dustbins and road signs. They now face up to two years in prison if found guilty.

Creating or distributing posters such as the ones depicting the Virgin Mary with a rainbow halo should not be a criminal offence and is protected under the right to freedom of expression.

The organisations said article 196 of the Criminal Code:

Imposes undue restrictions on the right to freedom of expression by allowing authorities too much leeway to prosecute and criminalise individuals for expression that must be protected.

This is incompatible with Poland’s international and regional human rights obligations.

Amnesty International has previously called on Polish authorities to amend article 196 of the Criminal Code, which it said:

Criminalises statements protected by the right to freedom of expression.

Some 140,000 people have joined an international campaign urging Poland’s prosecutor general to drop the “unfounded charges” against Podlesna and “Anna” and “Joanna.”

The coalition’s statement ends by saying:

Elżbieta, Anna and Joanna stood against hate and discrimination and for years they have been fighting for a just and equal Poland. They deserve to be praised and not taken to court for their activism.