Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro has condemned a court decision taken by a circuit judge against a young woman who was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for stealing a rainbow-colored bag as a protest against LGBT ideology.
The woman in question was convicted of violent assault and theft, which carries a minimum of a three-year jail sentence. The value of the bag, which in the end was not stolen anyway, was just over €3.
Ziobro said that it was, in fact, the young woman known as Marika who had been the victim of a judicial assault that took away her freedom for political and ideological reasons. He added that the case showed a communist mentality was returning to Polish courts by which people were to be locked up for political and ideological reasons.
The minister has decided to grant the young woman a suspension of her jail term, stating that she has now been set free and is awaiting a presidential decision on a pardon. Marika’s offense was committed in August 2020.
She had already spent one year in jail. Serving her sentence has made it impossible for the young 21-year-old to get the physiotherapy she needs for her to recover from a broken ankle.
Zbigniew Ziobro has promised that he would be taking action against the prosecutors involved in the case and will also be reviewing the way the court presided over the matter. He concluded that the whole episode was evidence of a crisis in the Polish judicial system and a gross miscarriage of justice.