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Court drops case against Polish metal singer over Virgin Mary collage

13.09.2021 21:30
A district court in Warsaw has dropped a case against Polish death metal star Adam Darski accused of desecrating the image of the Mother of God, but prosecutors have vowed to appeal, state news agency PAP reported on Monday.
Adam Darski performs during a concert in Copenhagen in February 2020.
Adam Darski performs during a concert in Copenhagen in February 2020.Gonzales Photo/Nikolaj Bransholm via PAP/Photoshot

In June 2019, Darski, who fronts the band Behemoth and goes by the stage name Nergal, posted a picture on social media that showed the Virgin Mary with a booted foot plastered on her face.

Members of the public notified prosecutors and charges were brought to court in February this year, the wpolityce.pl website has reported.

Warsaw's regional prosecution service on Monday told the PAP news agency that the district court in Warsaw's Mokotów district had dismissed the charges against Darski

The judge argued that Darski had warned on his Facebook page that the image might cause religious offence. And so, by informing would-be users in advance, "it cannot be judged that he demeaned an object of religious worship," the court said in August.

Yet prosecutors have disputed this, saying it was possible to view Darski's content without first reading the "warning clause."

The collage involving the Virgin Mary was publicly available and "the injured persons came across it by accident," prosecutor Marek Skrzetuski said, as cited by the PAP news agency.

Darski is no stranger to controversy. Last year, he appeared before a court after being accused of insulting Poland's national emblem, the white eagle.

In 2012, the country's Supreme Court ruled against Nergal after he tore a copy of the Bible while on stage and called the Catholic Church "the most murderous cult on the planet."

(pm/gs)

Source: PAPonet.plwpolityce.pl