Press release by Strajk Kobiet, published on 03/10/2024.
There is a verdict in the District Court in Warsaw in the criminal case against Polish Women’s Strike activists Agnieszka Czerederecka, Marta Lempart and Klementyna Suchanow. They were prosecuted for organizing protests after the pseudo judgment of the Constitutional Court of 22 October 2020, further banning abortion in Poland (under Article 165 of the Penal Code), and Marta Lempart was additionally prosecuted under Article 226 and Article 255 of the Penal Code (incitement to protest, insulting a police officer).
All three activists were acquitted. In the justification of the verdict Dictrict Court Justice Tomasz Grochowicz pointed out, among other things, that ‘there is no doubt that the defendants were the faces of these spontaneous gatherings, but there is also no doubt that this was a mobilisation of women, and not only women, in opposition to the restrictive limitation of their rights.’ The activists were represented by attorney Katarzyna Gajowniczek – Pruszyńska, attorney Bartosz Obrębski and attorney Krzysztof Stępiński.
Pro-abortion Polish Women’s Strike protests in 2020 against abortion restrictions, that lasted over 100 days and took place in over 600 cities in Poland, were the biggest massive street mobilisation since the fall of the communism in 1989. Abortion issue was the key factor in the voters’ mobilisation in the last parliamentary elections in 2023, that saw the loss of power of the Kaczyński’s authoritarian, right wing regime. In spite of that, none of the pre-electoral promises on abortion by the now-government were delivered – abortion is still banned in Poland, with just two exceptions, meaning 400 abortions per year provided in state hospitals vs. 150 000 per year provided by Abortion Without Borders and other activists’ collectives.
Marta Lempart: I should be happy that I am not going to prison, but I find it difficult to be happy that the Polish state has shown a modicum of decency with this verdict. It is 3rd of October, the 8th anniversary of the first Women’s Strike. I am standing here, and I am asking this wonderful new government, where is abortion? And the politicians who came to power on our bruised backs, at the cost of our stress, our health, our sacrifices, pretend not to hear us. They pretend not to know that we continue to be prosecuted for the protests that helped them win the elections. They pretend they don’t know the scale of the harassment of abortion activists by the police and prosecutors – that absolutely nothing has changed in this area. I think they are counting on us finally getting tired. They are wrong – we were not stopped by Kaczynski, we will not be stopped by the pseudo-democrats.
Agnieszka Czerederecka: This trial should not have taken place at all. The State Treasury, i.e. all of us, will pay for the costs of these proceedings. Not to mention the loss of time and energy – a year of trudging through the courts, a year of stress for us and our families. But today marks 8 years since we first took to the streets as the Polish Women’s Strike – and believe me, if I had to go back in time, I would have done everything the same from then on. Of course, it is terribly frustrating that this is us that stood and stand before the courts – not the politicians who put us through this fate, not the policemen who pacified our protests with gas and truncheons, not the Catholic fundamentalists from Ordo Iuris pretending to be lawyers.
Media contact: Marta Lempart 884 024 534, Klementyna Suchanow 605 582 888
Previous press release by Straik Kobiet, published on 30/09/2024 – accessible here.
Date: 3.10.2024
Time: 12.00
Courtroom: 224
Location: District Court in Warsaw, Solidarności 127
Press briefing after the verdict.
The criminal case against Polish Women’s Strike pro abortion protests’ (2020) leaders is finally coming to an end in the District Court in Warsaw, Poland. Marta Lempart, Agnieszka Czerederecka and Klementyna Suchanow are charged under Article 165 of the Penal Code (endangering the public by organizing protests) and Women’s Strike leader Marta Lempart is additionally charged under Article 226 and Article 255 of the Penal Code. All three women face up to 8 years in prison.
The announcement of the verdict will take place on October 3rd at noon in the District Court in Warsaw at 127 Solidarności Avenue (room: 224). This date is significant and symbolic for the entire movement that the Polish Women’s Strike is. It was on October 3rd, 2016 that the Women’s Strike organized the first mass protests in Poland in defense of abortion rights, which went down in history as Black Monday. At that time, women took to the streets of more than 160 cities and towns dressed in black in protest against the tightening of abortion law in Poland.
On the 8th anniversary of the first Polish Women’s Strike protest (2016), activists will hear the verdict for their involvement in the 2020 100-days stress protests, brutally suppressed by the state police and secret services.
It will be a verdict for their years of fighting in the streets, for the many days and nights spent protesting, in police cauldrons and in police detention. Judgment for their courage and determination, for their eyes burning with pain from the police gas, for their arms broken during the demonstrations, their spines physically damaged from the police batons.
The judgment will therefore be symbolic not only for the anniversary of the Women’s Strike, but above all for the fight for women’s rights in contemporary Poland. The verdict will show which way we are heading – towards the shameful direction of maternity wards where women are dying, or towards the civilized part of Europe.
Marta Lempart: Please be with us on that day. It is important that not only we, but also others who are still being dragged through the courts, know that they are not walking alone. Whatever happens this October 3rd or afterwards. See you there!
Media contact: +48 577 099 077 Marta Lempart marta.lempart@strajkkobiet.eu