Pastor Chojecki appeared at 8 a.m. today at the Lublin Village Museum to serve the forced labor he was sentenced to for criticizing the tenets of the Catholic Church and President Duda. The pastor was not allowed to work because of a banner he had on his back
“CONVICTED FOR CRITICISING THE CHURCH AND THE LAW AND JUSTICE.”
The pastor was also denied the company of a medical caregiver, even though Pastor Chojecki presented a medical certificate to that effect. Asked by the pastor’s lawyer, attorney Andrew Turczyn, about legal provisions that would say a pastor could not do forced labor with a banner on his back, representatives of the open-air museum said they were not aware of such laws.
Pawel Chojecki, pastor of the New Covenant Church in Lublin and editor-in-chief of Go Against the Tide TV, was on trial for words uttered during sermons and in programs aired on the television he founded. The prosecutor’s office accused him of insulting the religious feelings of Catholics, insulting Catholic objects of religious reverence, praising the initiation of a forward war against communist North Korea, and insulting the Polish Nation and the President of Poland. The court of first instance sentenced Pastor Chojecki to eight months of restriction of liberty in the form of community service and ordered him to pay legal costs of nearly PLN 21,000. Four appeals were filed to the verdict. The Court of Appeals in Lublin upheld the verdict of the court of first instance. Under the Polish system, Pastor Chojecki can no longer appeal the verdict. The case will be referred to international institutions for consideration.
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