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MEP Grzegorz Braun formally indicted over multiple public offenses

24.07.2025 10:10
The Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office has brought an indictment against MEP Grzegorz Braun on seven counts, including destruction of property, offending religious sentiments, and unlawful intrusion.
The District Prosecutors Office in Warsaw has filed charges against MEP Grzegorz Braun, accusing him of seven offenses, including property damage, offending religious feelings, and disturbing the peace.
The District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw has filed charges against MEP Grzegorz Braun, accusing him of seven offenses, including property damage, offending religious feelings, and disturbing the peace.Photo: PAP/Paweł Supernak

According to spokesperson Piotr Antoni Skiba, the charges include a December 2023 incident in which Braun used a fire extinguisher to put out Hanukkah candles during a ceremony in the lower house of parliament.

Prosecutors say the act offended Jewish religious sentiments. Braun is also accused of spraying a woman with powder, causing minor injury, and verbally abusing her.

Allegations against Braun include assault, disruption, and religious insult

Other charges relate to a May 2023 disruption of a Holocaust lecture by historian Jan Grabowski at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw, where Braun also damaged property. In January 2023, he allegedly removed a Christmas tree placed by judges in a Kraków courtroom and threw it into a bin.

A more serious charge involves a 2022 incident at the National Institute of Cardiology, where Braun, unmasked and accompanied by others, entered during the pandemic and interrupted a staff meeting. He is accused of physically assaulting the institute’s director, Dr. Łukasz Szumowski, by grabbing him and blocking his path.

In May 2025, the European Parliament lifted Braun’s immunity, enabling prosecution. Two additional requests for lifting his immunity remain pending.

One involves an attempted "citizen’s arrest" of a doctor performing legal abortions during Braun’s 2024 presidential campaign. He allegedly detained, pushed and verbally abused the doctor, and publicly slandered her.

Braun under fire for Holocaust denial, LGBT exhibit destruction, and abortion-related confrontation

A more recent request, filed in July 2025, concerns four incidents: the destruction of an LGBT+ exhibit in parliament, the theft of Ukrainian and EU flags from public buildings, and defamatory remarks during a televised debate about Holocaust remembrance.

Separately, Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) has launched an investigation into Braun for Holocaust denial. In a July 10 radio interview, he questioned whether mass killings occurred in gas chambers at Auschwitz - an offence under Polish law.

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Source: X/@Prok_Okreg_Wawa/IAR/PAP