Just one day after the narrow re-election of the right-wing conservative president Andrzje Duda, plain-clothes policemen forced their way into the apartment of the queer activist Małgorzata Szutowicz in the early morning and abducted her to an initially unknown location.

According to concurring reports, a roommate told Szutowicz that the officers did not identify themselves or give the reasons for their detention. According to other activists, Szutowicz was

“dragged out of the apartment,  without shoes or clothes on”

and then driven away in an unmarked car. Only after several hours did they find out that Małgorzata Szutowic was taken to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, where she was questioned. Today she will appear before the court, where her temporary arrest will be decided.

Małgorzata Szutowic belongs to the queer, anti-fascist group Stop Bzdurom, which since 2019 received special attention in the fight against a homophobic group that drives through Poland in small trucks and defames LGBTIQ* as pedophiles.

The group has since posted a militant article in which it announced that it would not be intimidated.

Reminders of Russia

The human rights lawyer Rémy Bonny wrote in a press release today

“This is what we all feared. Just one day after the re-election of the extreme right-wing anti-LGBTQ president Andrzej Duda, the PiS government is abusing its judicial power to organise a crackdown on LGBTQ activists. I have investigated the situation with local activists in Poland and have seen convincing audiovisual evidence that the police used disproportionate force during the arrest. Małgorzata now receives professional legal assistance. For legal reasons we will wait with the disclosure of the audiovisual evidence until it is legally required.

Like perhaps our readers*, the procedure is strongly reminiscent of Russia’s in the past. Rémy Bonny continues:

“I am used to seeing such arrests in Russia. It is a disgrace for the European Union that we allow our LGBTQ citizens to be arrested and mistreated by state force. I call on the EU to intervene immediately. We cannot allow the persecution of a minority in the EU.”

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