Three males have been cleared of wrongdoing after toppling the statue of a former Polish priest suspected of sexually abusing kids.
The activists gained prominence by knocking over the effigy of Henryk Jankowski in February 2019.
Jankowski rose to prominence within the Nineteen Eighties via his assist for the pro-democracy Solidarity motion towards Poland’s communist regime. After his dying in 2010, proof mounted that he had allegedly abused girls and boys throughout his priesthood.
Polish officers initially refused to take down a statue honouring him, earlier than three males selected to behave.
Konrad Korzeniowski, Rafal Suszek, and Michal Wojcieszczuk toppled the statue through the night time and reported themselves to the police, explaining they’d acted for the nice of the neighborhood. The transfer was a symbolic second within the historically Catholic nation’s reckoning with clerical abuse.
The three males additionally accused the Polish church of “systemic complicity within the evil finished to folks by Henryk Jankowski”.
Final yr, a decrease court docket discovered them responsible of insulting and destroying the monument however selected to not impose a penalty as a result of “low social harmfulness” of the act.
On Monday, the Gdansk district court docket dominated on attraction to acquit the three males.
Shipyard employees initially re-erected the statue of Jankowski earlier than metropolis councillors voted to take away it completely and rename the sq..
