The Warsaw police have detained the fifth man suspected of attacking a citizen of Warsaw of Turkish origin. The 40-year-old has been the last missing suspect in relation to the attack that took place in December in a line 521 bus.
"Officers from Warsaw's police unit fighting hooliganism have detained another man who will stand trial for a nationality-motivated attack that took place in December in a line 521 bus. The 40-year-old is the fifth person charged in connection to this case," the Warsaw Metropolitan Police informed on Twitter.
In another tweet, they have clarified that "the man will stand trial for publicly inciting hate motivated by nationality" for which he may face up to two years in prison.
According to Marcin Saduś, the spokesperson for the Warszawa-Praga Distict Prosecutor's Office, the proceedings are being led towards Article 256 Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code, which says that "whoever publicly insults a group or an individual because of their nationality, ethnicity, race, beliefs or lack thereof or for any of those reasons violates another person's bodily integrity, is liable of prison sentence up to three years".
Racist attack in a bus
The attack took place in the middle of December in a line 521 bus. A group of football fans were chanting racist slurs against Turkish citizens. Efe Türkel, who was travelling with his friend, was hit by one of the attackers. As he stated, the attackers got provoked by the conversation in Turkish language.
"Gentlemen, I'm Polish too, we're also going to the game," he tried to appease tension. He speaks Polish because he has lived in Poland for 15 years. It didn't help. "They didn't care at all, it was enough for them that we speak another language and come from Turkey," he said.
Türkel claimed that he struggled to report the racist attack to the police. He tried to report it to the officers at metro station Centrum and later on, at Wilcza street. In the end, he managed to report the incident at a police station in Wawer district.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, tvnwarszawa.pl
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: Shutterstock