Court orders police to return confiscated flag with "Women's Strike" logo

We wrote about the case in at tvn24.pl in December, 2020. It pertains to a situation which had taken place at one of the neighbourhoods in Warsaw's Ursus district.

It was past 8 p.m. A man was sitting at home with his three little children.

"Our local police officer and a constable assisting her appeared at the door. They entered the flat without my consent and immediately headed to the balcony, where they removed the flag that had been hanging there for a month. They didn't pay any attention to my kids' growing dismay with the situation," the man told tvn24.pl at the time. He also recorded part of the intervention.

The police intervention took about an hour and ended in removing of the flag from the balcony and its confiscation. The flat owner was told to report at the station the following day. When he did so, he was informed that the prosecutor's office had launched an inquiry.

The resident of Ursus, who was visited by the police, claims the officers abused his rights.

"The time and method of the intervention, its circumstances bore features of repression," attorney Bartosz Obrębski, representing the resident, said. He filed a complaint on the intervention at the court.

The court examined the case on Tuesday. As attorney Obrębski told tvn24.pl, the judge found that the police intervention had been in fact a search of the place, rather than inspection, like the officers had claimed. The court stressed that the flat owner had refused to surrender the flag wilfully, nor had he invited them inside. If this was a search (rather than inspection, as the officers claimed), the flat owner would have had different rights and duties.

The court ordered the flag be returned immediately. The judge explained that the for the purposes of the inquiry, which is to determine whether the "Women's Strike" logo desecrated the flag, the police could have made a photographic documentation. Now, we're waiting for a written justification of the court's decision," attorney Bartosz Obrębski said.

The inquiry has been going on for nine months now, and the prosecutor's office still cannot decide whether the "Women's Strike" logo is a flag desecration or not.

"The inquiry is being continued, it's at the in rem stage (it is being conducted with regards to property rather than a person). The prosecutor's office is waiting for a complaint on the procedural steps to be recongised. The main case files, along with the complaint, have been referred to a regional court, and haven't been returned with a decision yet," Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Aleksandra Skrzyniarz told us.

Attorney Obrębski told tvn24.pl that, due to the court's decision, he and his client were considering further action.

"We're waiting for a written justification. I can't rule out seeking compensation from Warsaw Metropolitan Police," the attorney said.