Radosław Sikorski won a legal case brought by Jarosław Kaczyński regarding a 2021 social media post concerning the late President Lech Kaczyński and the Smolensk disaster.
Radosław Sikorski Announces the Verdict
Radosław Sikorski announced the verdict on Monday, March 23rd. The court ruled that Sikorski’s opinion, which was the subject of the case, “was an element of a legitimate assessment of the presidency of the late President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński.”
Furthermore, the opinion had “sufficient factual basis,” both subjectively—based on the defendant’s own experiences in cooperating with the late Lech Kaczyński—and objectively. Sikorski expressed gratitude to the Dubois and Partners law firm and congratulated legal counsel Elżbieta Kosińska-Kozak.
Sikorski’s Original Post About Lech Kaczyński
In January 2021, Sikorski published a post on Twitter (now X) stating he did not support the idea of naming a street in Warsaw after Lech Kaczyński.
“Lech Kaczyński was a mediocre president and significantly contributed to the Smolensk catastrophe. He already has Wawel Castle and an unauthorized construction on Piłsudski Square. Enough of building a cult for which there is no basis,” Sikorski wrote at the time.
First Instance Ruling and Appeal
On March 17, 2023, the Warsaw District Court ordered Sikorski to publish an apology on Twitter stating: “I apologize to Mr. Jarosław Kaczyński for the fact that on January 14, 2021, on the Twitter portal, I violated his personal rights, in the form of the cult of memory of the deceased, stating that President Lech Kaczyński significantly contributed to the Smolensk catastrophe. Radosław Sikorski.”
Sikorski appealed the ruling. The current ruling by the Court of Appeal is final and binding.
Edited by
Jan Latała
