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Activists acquitted in Polish rainbow Virgin Mary case

They lacked the required intent to offend, a court said

02 March, 16:52
(ANSA-AFP) - PLOCK, MAR 2 - A Polish court on Tuesday acquitted three gay rights activists who were accused of offending religious sentiment after they put up posters of the Virgin Mary with a rainbow halo. The defendants -- Joanna Gzyra-Iskandar, Anna Prus and Elzbieta Podlesna -- were found not guilty because they lacked the required intent to offend, according to the regional court in the central city of Plock.

"The goal of the activists... was to show support to LGBT individuals, to fight for their equal rights," Judge Agnieszka Warchol said. The women had faced up to two years in prison under article 196 of Poland's criminal code, which prohibits offending religious sentiment. The Polish Catholic church and governing nationalists oppose gay rights, which the rainbow flag symbolises. The case dates back to April 2019, when the posters at issue appeared on rubbish bins and portable toilets near a church in Plock. They showed a likeness of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, a revered icon of the Virgin Mary located in the devout Catholic country's Jasna Gora monastery. Earlier that week, the leader of the governing PiS party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, had denounced LGBT rights as a "threat" and called on Poles to respect the Catholic Church regardless of personal beliefs.

Calling the defendants "brave", Amnesty Poland took to Twitter on Tuesday to "call on authorities to refrain from targeting and harassing any other peaceful activists". (ANSA-AFP).

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