Prosecutors have sent an indictment to the Regional Court in Legnica against 26-year-old Karolina O., who according to investigators hit three Ukrainian children because they were speaking to each other in a language other than Polish. The accused faces up to 5 years in prison.
What the prosecution alleges
The indictment was announced on Friday, 13 November, by prosecutor Liliana Łukasiewicz of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Legnica. Karolina O. will answer for publicly insulting six children from Ukraine and for assaulting three of them. Investigators concluded that she acted out of xenophobic motives. The charge also includes praising Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The case will be heard by the Regional Court in Legnica.
How the incident happened
The incident took place on the evening of Saturday, 18 July, at a sports ground in Legnica. The woman was there with her two underage daughters. According to prosecutors, she noticed a group of Ukrainian children speaking Russian among themselves and began directing vulgar, insulting remarks about their origin at them. She allegedly ordered them to speak Polish, claiming they were not allowed to speak another language in Poland.
Prosecutors also established that the accused expressed approval of the killing of Ukrainian citizens in the war waged by Russia. When the children refused to give back a ball that the woman’s daughter had been playing with earlier, she allegedly struck two girls and a boy in the face, with a fist and an open hand.
Investigation and the accused’s position
The investigation was opened on 21 July after statements from the mothers of 13-year-old girls and securing city surveillance footage showing the entire incident. Karolina O. was detained on 22 July and charged with discrimination on the basis of national affiliation, combined with causing minor bodily injuries. Prosecutors said at the time that the injuries caused a health disorder lasting less than seven days.
The woman was subject to non-custodial preventive measures: police supervision, a ban on approaching and contacting the injured parties, and a ban on being on the sports ground where the incident occurred.
During her first interrogation she admitted to slapping one of the girls with an open hand, but denied punching and said she had only pushed the boy. She explained her behaviour by her anger over being refused the ball and by what she considered the children’s improper conduct. She did not admit to acting out of xenophobic motives, and in a subsequent interrogation she refused to give explanations. Court-appointed psychiatric experts found that she was aware of her behaviour during the incident.
The possible sentence
According to a July announcement, the offence of discrimination carries a penalty of between 3 months and 5 years in prison. Because it was committed out of hooligan motives, the upper limit could be increased by half, to 7 years and 6 months. On Friday, prosecutors spoke of a penalty of up to 5 years.
We have written about other cases involving Ukrainian citizens in the region in our article on the indictment against four Ukrainians from Legnica.
