by Kyle Knight, Philippe Dam

Warsaw police have arrested a nonbinary activist, Margot Szutowicz, who has been placed in pretrial detention, in the latest example of Polish authorities’ anti-LGBT actions. Forty-eight other people, from a crowd of LGBT rights supporters protesting Szutowicz’s imminent arrest last Friday, were also briefly detained but have been released. An investigation by the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights found that some of those arrested were not protestors but merely bystanders, and further that police insulted and humiliated LGBT detainees.

Polish authorities should seek to have Szutowicz’s pretrial detention lifted. Szutowicz is being held for two months awaiting trial for allegedly causing damage to a truck promoting false anti-LGBT propaganda and assaulting a pro-life demonstrator on June 27. The charges carry multi-year prison sentences.

The European Parliament LGBTI Intergroup, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Council of Europe SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) Unit have all called for Szutowicz’s immediate release. The European Commission, including President Ursula Von der Leyen, should join the chorus of voices pressing Poland to release Margot from pretrial detention. Read more via HRW