Drone view of the Marywilska 44 shopping center burning during a massive fire in Warsaw 2024 | Photo: Dariusz Borowicz/Agencja Wyborcza/REUTERS A devastating fire broke out on Sunday morning at the Marywilska 44 shopping complex in Warsaw's Bialoleka district The fire brigade reported that more than 80% of the vast complex was ablaze including chemical and environmental rescue specialists Polish authorities reported a fire at the Marywilska 44 shopping center in Warsaw as of the morning of May 12. A warning has been issued for nearby residents to stay home and close their windows. đŸ”„ 💹 pic.twitter.com/fC1h2Yehp5 — Farnak (@Farnakyboy) May 12, 2024 "The smell of smoke from the fire could be felt miles away." Footage aired by the private broadcaster TVN24 showed thick black smoke billowing over the area as the flames engulfed the shopping center According to a police spokesperson quoted by the PAP news agency Authorities also issued a text message warning to Warsaw residents advising them to stay indoors with windows closed due to the fire The British police launched an urgent operation to stop Iranian terror cells operating within the country The square will showcase new and chilling displays including reconstructions of detention cages used by Hamas A German citizen with ties to far-right circles was apprehended after expressing his intention to carry out a terrorist attack.. Analysis  Archaeology Blogpost Business & Finance Culture Exclusive Explainer Environment Features Health In Brief Jewish World Judea and Samaria Lifestyle Cyber & Internet Sports Diplomacy  Iran & The Gulf Gaza Strip Politics Shopping Terms of use Privacy Policy Submissions Contact Us The first issue of Israel Hayom appeared on July 30 Israel Hayom was founded on the belief that the Israeli public deserves better more balanced and more accurate journalism [contact-form-7 id=”508379″ html_id=”isrh_form_Newsletter_en” title=”newsletter_subscribe”] In the early hours of this morning at around 3.15 am a large fire broke out in the trade centre at Marywilska Street in Warsaw's BiaƂoƂęka district PoĆŒar hali w Warszawie. Film. Wawa Hot News 24 pic.twitter.com/Ui7RM2n9Nm At 6.00 am Warsaw inhabitants were warned by text from the emergency services to keep windows closed to minimise health risks from the smoke Firefighters have brought the fire under control and no-one has been injured The firefighting team includes a special unit to counteract ecological damage Social media is full of speculation about the causes of the fire this is not the first fire there and the alarm did not function properly One explanation offered is that the site is an attractive one for real-estate investors: Sep 14, 2022 | Notes from Pawland, Society Authorities in Warsaw are warning residents that they are increasingly likely to bump into wild boars on the streets. Polish cities have been reporting ever higher numbers of the animal in recent years The issue in the capital has been highlighted by city councillor Anna Auksel-Sekutowicz who alerted Warsaw’s safety and public order committee after a recent encounter with a family of boars with 12 young in the BiaƂoƂęka district “Wild boars out for walks can be seen increasingly often in BiaƂoƂęka,” said Auksel-Sekutowicz “And more and more often residents are informing about these meetings near to their homes Auksel-Sekutowicz added that Magdalena MƂochowska the city official responsible for Warsaw’s green spaces confirmed that her office was receiving increasing numbers of notifications of boar sightings in BiaƂoƂęka as well as in Wawer and WilanĂłw MƂochowska asked residents to report any encounters Wild boars have been increasingly frequent visitors to the streets of Polish cities in recent years and the population in the capital has been rising AndĆŒelika Gackowska of Warsaw City Forests told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) “It’s not that the boars come to the city because we’re chopping down forests,” Gackowska explained “These animals have often never seen a forest They sleep in the undergrowth and green spaces “They no longer just migrate, they live here now”: Polish city deals with booming boar numbers Wild boars are very intelligent and capable of remembering the times when they are likely to have food shared with them by children leaving school or an elderly lady frequenting the park “They can even remember the bio waste collection timetable and come in the evening or morning to check whether residents have left bags out.” has led to a growth in Warsaw’s boar population “One sow can give birth to even 10 young and they all survive In the autumn they start to look almost like adults “Animals are increasingly bold in entering areas they were not seen in before: housing estates city parks,” Marlena Salwowska of Warsaw city hall told Rzeczpospolita last year “They also move freely between the capital and neighbouring municipalities.” New high-tech boar trap in Polish city offers humane solution to growing urban problem Cases of African Swine Fever (ASF) in recent years have complicated dealing with urban wild boars which cannot be moved away because of the potential spread of the disease the lack of new ASF cases as well as the safety of human residents rule out a cull which would require the approval of the city’s mayor The only option the Warsaw authorities are left with is to scare wild boars from the most frequented areas or to chase them into one of the municipal forests Wolves return to forests around Warsaw 50 years after being culled to near extinction the wild boar population in Poland has increased dramatically this century there were 81,000 in 1995 and 215,000 in 2017 then agriculture minister Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski admitted that the true figure is unclear with estimates varying between 200,000 and 1 million “The factors that used to limit the boar population – lower availability of food and harsh winters – no longer apply as they once did,” explained RafaƂ Kowalczyk director of the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences at the time “We have milder winters
increasing their survivability
and secondly First racoon sighted in Warsaw, prompting fears that “alien predator” could cause havoc Main image credit: Wikimedia/Filip Dabrowski (under CC BY-SA 3.0) Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland , , The proportion of Poles saying the US has a positive influence on the world has also fallen to its lowest recorded level , , Poland has recorded the strongest rise in consumer sentiment across the EU this year , , , The stunt has also been criticised by Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland as well as politicians from Poland’s main ruling party Apr 30, 2025 | , , , That response will include “large Polish and NATO exercises in Poland” Apr 29, 2025 | , , , Those employed in Poland work on average the third-longest hours in the European Union Apr 28, 2025 | , , , , Westinghouse and Bechtel were first chosen in 2022 as partners on the 192 billion zloty ($51 billion) project please consider helping us to continue and expand it [email protected] Copyright © 2025 Notes From Poland | Design jurko studio | Code by 2sides.pl Senior Research Fellow at the Global Europe Centre ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Weronika StrzyĆŒyƄska is currently studying journalism at Goldsmiths as a Scott Trust Bursary recipient She  has written on issues immigration and Brexit for New Statesman and Prospect Agnieszka WądoƂowska is managing editor of Notes from Poland She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and assistant professor of history at the Pedagogical University of Krakow He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications The Independent and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Stanley Bill is the founder and editor-at-large of Notes from Poland.He is also Senior Lecturer in Polish Studies and Director of the Polish Studies Programme at the University of Cambridge Stanley has spent more than ten years living in Poland He founded Notes from Poland in 2014 as a blog dedicated to personal impressions cultural analysis and political commentary He is committed to the promotion of deeper knowledge and understanding of Poland He is the Chair of the Board of the Notes from Poland Foundation ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Professor of European Studies at Oxford University ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Professor at the Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Executive Director of Taube Family Foundation ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Science ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR We rely on your support for our independence Maciej Dobrowolski spent 40 months in prison because he was accused of committing two felonies The excessive use of detention in remand is under the spotlight in Poland On the far-flung northern outskirts of Warsaw, Poland’s largest remand prison serves as a distant memory of the country’s communist past it held 600-plus Solidarity leaders and activists following a crackdown on the movement during the communist regime’s imposed martial law three decades later the facility detains well-over 1,000 inmates some of them are held without sentence for much longer periods of time than the Solidarity internees was living behind the impenetrable concrete walls and loops of barbed wire of the Warsaw-Bialoleka remand prison for over half of his 40 months inside and he wholeheartedly credits his friends and the media for it stooping over a table at an almost half-a-century old situated on the same street as the Polish president’s Belweder Palace he cracks a smile while recounting the events of the past three and a half years with a lot of humor But it seems like there’s another side to him one that rarely surfaces and is much more emotional and filled with anger over what he feels was injustice Speaking with a hoarse voice that tends to thin out he repeats what he has been saying during the weeks after his release: “I still can’t believe that it could happen in my country.” It was 6am when someone pounded at his Warsaw apartment’s door The officers of the Central Bureau of Investigations poured inside and searched every room and later the basement and car Dobrowolski was on his way to a detention facility just like 40 others arrested that day in similar circumstances he just had time to kiss his fiancĂ©e goodbye They both thought it was a misunderstanding It was late in May 2012 and in September they planned to wed A closet full of vodka crates awaited the celebration Dobrowolski had been handing out the invitations he heard charges of taking part in intra-community drug trafficking from the Netherlands to Poland together and in agreement with members of an organized crime group The felonies had a jail term of up to 15 years “It was a total shock,” admits Dobrowolski “When they were presenting the charges against me I was thinking this must be some sort of a candid camera prank and any second someone will yell the charges resulted from the testimony of gang member-turned-crown witness Marek H Attending his first football match as an 11-year-old Maciej has become an avid Legia Warsaw supporter over time “Legia turned out to be one of the most important things in his life,” admits Jerzy Dobrowolski His son’s commitment to the club ran much deeper than most other fans He wrote for Nasza Legia (Our Legia) magazine and joined the Legia Warsaw Fans Association later taking on the responsibility for logistics of traveling to away games That role made him rise to prominence among the club supporters who attended Legia games and events connected with the club Maciej Dobrowolski played a big role in organizing a charity game between Legia and the Dutch ADO Den Haag The purpose of it was to raise money for a veteran Legia fan who was confined to a wheelchair because of a serious disease To work out the details of the friendly encounter Dobrowolski traveled back and forth between Poland and the Netherlands many times those trips had a different purpose and he said that having a good knowledge of English Dobrowolski accompanied him on numerous occasions and helped with the purchase of over 700 kilograms of marijuana that was later trafficked to Poland Dobrowolski admitted that he went with Marek H to The Hague two times by car because it was cheaper than the alternatives Dobrowolski denies having any knowledge of or having anything to do with the drug trafficking scheme toilet and a sink blended perfectly with the grayish decor at the Warsaw-Mokotow remand prison The overall gloom of the cell Dobrowolski found himself in was noticeable at first sight Wearing the only clothes he had and being without any other possessions made his predicament all the more uncomfortable the court remanded Dobrowolski in custody for three months that he committed felonies and the risk of him interfering with witnesses were the reasons given The charges were the basis for his designation as a dangerous detainee a new set of rules severely limited his life One of the rules was no right to make phone calls but the restrictions went further and impacted his contact with close ones even restricting the number of hour-long visits “I was concerned about him,” admits Krzysztof Wąsowski who could visit him at any time during the prison’s open hours “He couldn’t understand the situation he found himself in He was ready to testify on the spot and also wanted me to explain that it was all a misunderstanding.” The dangerous detainee status also kept him isolated from other inmates with the exception of the people in his cell but the faces changed a lot as juggling inmates was common practice he experienced the internal solidarity among detainees when they gave him clothes and underwear he badly needed his first clothes parcel came after three months The bell sound pierced through the remand prison’s inner walls prompting inmates to make their beds Dobrowolski was told to take all his belongings and put them into a convoy truck he had been transferred from Warsaw to Radom over 400 kilometers north of Poland’s capital city The trip up north was a result of a leg injury sustained one day while working out at Radom’s remand prison The local facility lacked the resources to treat his injury and Gdansk was where he could receive the proper medical care The convoy that took him in the morning turned out to be a three day prison’s tour Dobrowolski was kept in the dark about the route “We stayed overnight at some facilities on the way but it took a lot of time to cover the distance to Gdansk,” he says “I remember hearing George Michael’s Last Christmas at some point on the radio in the truck as this was the beginning of December Dobrowolski was moved to Gdansk to receive medical treatment and it went on for about two weeks “I think that the prosecutor didn’t mind me being there as long as possible,” he says “I was far away from my family and hometown they could find a treatment for my leg in Warsaw but instead I was hundreds of kilometers away but the fact is that his case relates only to Warsaw and it was his lawyer’s idea that brought him back to the capital after spending three months in Gdansk The plan was to call Dobrowolski as a witness to testify in an unrelated case that was proceeding before a court in Warsaw It was suggested he had been at the Legia’s stadium restaurant when another person smuggled flares in to the stands and then lit them during a game It was a skillfully played move and it worked Nobody would make the effort to take him back to Gdansk now fill the airwaves of a bustling confectionery shop situated on the same street as the 1970s-style restaurant in which his son was recounting the years spent in custody The water in his teapot has already sat a few minutes past its burning hot prime and his tea bag is dry as he is busy recounting the events that followed Maciej’s arrest I was sure it had been a misunderstanding and they would let him go soon,” says Jerzy Dobrowolski adding that they decided not to cancel Maciej’s wedding ceremony for some time “I knew he sometimes helped friends with translation But the amount of drugs he allegedly trafficked was unbelievable and it was only based on the crown witness testimony It wasn’t until his son got transferred to Radom that Dobrowolski senior had seen his son for the first time since the arrest Maciej’s fiancĂ©e was the only one visiting him “He felt innocent and that’s what gave him strength but he was not made out of steel,” says Jerzy Dobrowolski especially after Maciej found himself in Gdansk he and his wife would visit him more frequently “Trying to conceal the tears in our eyes we tried to comfort him He was doing everything to convince us that he’s doing fine and it’s just a matter of time until they’re going to release him.” By the time Maciej Dobrowolski was brought back to the capital this time to the Warsaw-Bialoleka remand prison It was the tenth month of the investigation carried out by the public prosecutor’s office the period of remand was extended for another three months and then another three months and then another three months “The court doesn’t review them because it doesn’t have to,” says Michal Korolczuk one of lawyers representing Maciej Dobrowolski “The decision to extend the custody in remand is just based on the evidence based suspicion that the act was committed by the charged person and that it entails a severe penalty There are numerous rulings and court-adopted standpoints which say it’s the proper way to proceed.” Dobrowolski’s never-fainting glimmer of hope was put to a test by the court but besides that nothing much was going on The days blurred into a monotonous daily routine that filled his life and gave him the much-needed sense of his life having any meaning you could spend the whole day watching TV or just lying in your bunk bed,” says Dobrowolski “Every day I waited for the soap operas and newscasts and then at 9 or 10 pm it was time to sleep Winters were better for that part because it quickly got dark after a year-and-a-half of the preliminary investigation Ignoring the ubiquitous TV screens replaying a football game a handful of guests chat while sipping on their drinks Sitting below a picture of one of Legia’s greats at the Legia stadium restaurant is Marcin Rudowski Dobrowolski’s close and decades-long friend “They wanted to break him,” he says without any hesitation “That’s why he spent so much time in remand.” The reasons for Dobrowolski’s arrest were a shock for his close circle of friends who had some experience being detained before or after the games But in Maciej’s predicament there was not much they could do to help him besides sending in money to his prison account and waiting in hope that it’s all cleared up as quick as possible sitting and waiting was not easy to accept so we arrived at the prison walls and shouted to him,” says Rudowski “Sometimes we tried to catch a glimpse of him when he was out in the prison yard We wanted to let him know that we’re there and that he can count on us.” his friends made another effort to show him their support including those invited for the wedding ceremony and ADO Den Haag fans who had booked their plane tickets and decided to come arrived near the prison walls and lit up the sky with flares lying in a hospital bed with catheters placed in his veins heard the news of Dobrowolski testifying in the “flare” case after being transported from Gdansk Without much deliberation he called a friend to pick him up jumped out of bed in his Legia-green T-shirt and sneaked out into the car that drove him to the courtroom posing as Dobrowolski’s cousin and attaching his medical history to the application he obtained a permission to visit him at the Warsaw-Bialoleka facility “There was no other way I could see him,” he explains “And I had to see what was his physical and mental condition the persisting feeling among them was that they could do more and they had a new idea As Dobrowolski’s detention in remand kept being extended He had represented another person arrested on analogous charges on the same day as Dobrowolski and obtained his release just after eight months of remand after the charges were filed in January 2014 the criminal proceedings came to a standstill until July the same year as one of the judges recused himself due to a conflict of interest and a new one had to get familiar with the case That didn’t in any way prevent the court from extending Dobrowolski’s temporary arrest in the meantime But the real blow came when an Appellate Court which came into play after two years of remand and had been considered to be a safeguard measure against a long-lasting detention “We had a whole array of arguments that weighed in favor of releasing Maciej “His inability to interfere with the police-protected crown witness examples of other accused with analogous charges quickly released on bail There was not much hope for improvement of Dobrowolski’s legal situation until the long-awaited start of the trial in the second half of 2014 when a small crown witness who had been presented in the case files as one potentially incriminating Dobrowolski testified Yet the court’s standing remained firm and unchanged the meticulously cut swathes of green grass suffuse the inner confines of the Legia Warsaw stadium Above several rows of empty seats on the western side in one of the many simple but elegant lounges Lukasz Kowalski is in the middle of his workday He’s been a journalist for 20 years and he now works with the club he has known Dobrowolski for about two decades and has forged a strong friendship with him “Maciej’s situation put that friendship to a test and I’m glad we proved ourselves as friends,” he says with a sort of relief in his voice It was Kowalski’s idea to create the #UwolnicMacka (Free Maciej) hashtag that took off via social media and then spread to the mainstream media elevating Dobrowolski’s case to a wholly unexpected campaign level across Poland “The only thing we regret is not starting the media campaign earlier,” he admits The media campaign wasn’t started earlier for a reason the prospect of talking to the mainstream media was a bitter pill that no one dared to swallow The underlying feelings were those of outrage at the way the die-hard football supporters had been portrayed in general Although every once in a while the hooligan image had been fueled by some of them the willingness of the media to focus exclusively on the negative had produced a maze of mistrust when Rudowski and Dobrowolski’s fiancĂ©e gave an interview to Gazeta Wyborcza one of the most popular daily newspapers on the market though arguably the most disliked by football supporters because of their coverage but it still cost us greatly to go and talk to them,” says Rudowski None of the lawyers gave Maciej a slight chance of being released on bail We wanted to see if the media could help us The article appeared in the local edition of Gazeta Wyborcza and didn’t cause much of a stir but it was quickly followed with another one and then another one after a few months it was not until the creation of the hashtag and the setting up of a Facebook profile in May 2015 that the snowball really started rolling One of the early ideas of what soon could be called a campaign was to print 28,000 postcards with a picture of Maciej Dobrowolski and the hashtag and then persuade people to send them to the remand prison addressed to Dobrowolski It was a way of showing support and teasing the authorities as his correspondence was subject to censorship Another move was to reach out to other teams’ fan groups and persuade them to hang out banners supporting Dobrowolski during games Lech Poznan joined in—and considering the animosities between us [it] was really remarkable,” says Rudowski Pictures of banners hung in support of Maciej from fans of teams There were also those from regular people holding banners The most surprising were the drawings from school kids expressing their support I had like 100 messages or even more to open,” says Rudowski who managed the page “The ones with attached pictures had priority but I was doing my best to respond to each and every one of them Only two or three ended up on the page because I was afraid that too many of them will put visitors off the profile.” The Facebook profile thrived and with the initial mistrust gone spread the message among fellow journalists The requests for interviews started coming in from TV and radio channels and newspapers alike “It was getting big to the point that we felt that there’s no way of controlling it” says Kowalski the articles in the press still appeared.” May 2015 marked three years since Dobrowolski’s arrest he only saw visitors from behind the Plexiglas and communication was limited to a guard controlled talk via telephone He was sanctioned after one of the visits when his parents but they had not notified the prison authorities about it beforehand “She didn’t pass the test of time and I cannot really blame her,” sighs Dobrowolski with his head hung low giving the impression that he hasn’t gotten over it yet Desperately looking for some turning point the chief judge presiding over the court proceedings over limiting his contact with his family members sanctioning visits through glass and not being given the right to call his lawyer This move didn’t go unnoticed by the media who after the initial outlining of his case were in need of fuel the chair of the Criminal Justice Division of the Warsaw’s Appellate Court largely exaggerated Dobrowolski’s role calling him the number one person in the organized crime group Kussyk stated that the scale and intensity of the publicity given to keeping Dobrowolski in prison on remand is seen by the court as an attempt to influence the case as is the fact that the accused asked The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights for help in his case “I couldn’t believe how someone could say that in a democratic state governed by the rule of law,” says Korolczuk “Informing public opinion about a case that is open to the public is in accordance with the basic standards of a criminal trial.” said in an interview for a local radio station in Szczecin that he heard about his case and that he would ask the public prosecutor general and the minister of justice about it The president’s public acknowledging of Dobrowolski’s case had a huge significance and the spirits in the Dobrowolski’s camp were flying high once again although just before Duda’s interview the atmosphere had been gloomy the Appellate Court extended the remand period for another three months The reasons given were similar every time the court extended the remand and included the severity of potential penalties and the need to secure the proper proceedings “We were convinced that was going to be it and then when I heard about the court’s decision I felt like crying,” says Kowalski A few days after Duda’s interview in Szczecin the presidential office sent an official request asking for information about Dobrowolski’s repeatedly extended remand the public prosecutor general turned to the Appellate public prosecutor’s office and referred them to the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the abnormal use of the detention on remand by the Polish judiciary the chief judge of Warsaw’s Appellate Court “The probability of negatively influencing the case proceedings gets smaller and smaller with time … and shouldn’t be the only basis for extending the remand … the court decided that in the case of Maciej Dobrowolski the requirement to report at specified time to a police station and obligation to pay the amount of 50,000 zloty [$12,400] in order to secure release are sufficient to secure the proper proceedings.” Kowalski and Rudowski all nervously shifted but with every uttered word their anxiety gave way to joy Although this was the best news they heard since the time of Maciej Dobrowolski’s arrest Maciej could be released on the same day—they just had to deliver the money And the judge said it had to be delivered by 3:45pm Rudowski and another of Dobrowolski’s friends were not alarmed They had about 40 minutes and enough money put aside to pay the bail amount when they arrived at the court with the required sum in cash it turned out that the only way to pay the bail amount was through a bank transfer transferred the money and came back to the court building with a confirmation “We learned that the deadline wasn’t really the deadline,” says Kowalski three years and four months after his arrest in May 2012 The solemn walls of the District Court echo the sound of the passing cars and trams The rectangular edifice the court resides in was built before the Second World War and used as one of the escape routes from the Warsaw Ghetto during Nazi Germany’s occupation Up on the second floor in a modestly furnished room the press officer of the Criminal Justice Division She’s the only person who could be contacted about Dobrowolski’s case as the Appellate Court and public prosecutor’s office finished their proceedings and Having been briefed in advance about the questions using vivid examples to illustrate the reasoning applied by the court for the excessive detention of Maciej Dobrowolski She said that the gathered evidence made a strong case that he committed the two felonies he was accused of and that the amount of drugs he took part in buying and placing on the Polish market could intoxicate Warsaw’s whole population there is one question she struggles to answer: the reason for the change in the court’s decision with regard to Dobrowolski’s release on bail “The District Court was still of the opinion that the detention on remand should be extended and the Appellate Court initially agreed the latter acceded,” says Furtak-Leszczynska explaining that she doesn’t know the details of the case in a sufficient degree to give her own opinion and that she can only present the court’s decision “The decision was made in accordance with the public prosecutor’s office it maintained a consistent position about the need to extend the remand period.” his circle of friends and lawyers have no doubt that the wide media coverage of his situation has been crucial to his release nothing new occurred that would justify Maciej’s release on 29th of September and not on 27th of August,” says Korolczuk “The media made our voice heard and the coverage sparked the interest of many other institutions my client would have faced the same predicament The excessive use of detention in remand by the Polish judiciary was deemed a structural problem and has been repeatedly criticized by the European Court of Human Rights since 2000 some of the European Court of Human Rights’ judgments have been implemented and the numbers show significant progress in 2005 the number of detentions in remand amounted to 35,000 dropping to over 11,000 in 2014 the length of remand shortened from over 1,000 cases that crossed the two-year detention period in 2005 to about 400 in 2014 Korolczuk admits that things have improved especially in cases involving organized crime-related charges—and Dobrowolski’s case brings them to light “The courts rubber-stamped the prosecution’s applications imposing the custody in remand automatically without taking into account Maciej’s personal circumstances or considering the facts of the case,” he says “It was possible given the severity of the potential penalty and the presumption that the defendant may influence the proceedings Our line of defense and my client’s behavior didn’t matter There was no way we could overturn the constantly invoked presumption of influencing the proceedings on any grounds.” The judge’s habit to nearly always follow the recommendation of the prosecutor to order detention and the lack of consideration concerning the defendant’s submissions in sufficient detail were identified—among other flaws—in a 2012 report about pre-trial detention in Poland by Fair Trials Internationals The report acknowledged the ongoing legal reforms but expressed concern about the gap between law and practice one of the experts that worked with Fair Trials International who also got involved in the effort to release Dobrowolski says officially asking the court about practical reasons for extending his detention period points to another shortcoming the law stipulates a maximum period of detention in remand the accused is released when the period is exceeded adding that he knows cases of people having being held in remand for several years “The situation when the detention period goes on for over two to three years and there’s no sentence in the court of first resort and the accused is remanded in custody raises doubts as far as human rights standards.” eats modest meals and can’t get the turning key’s metallic latching in the cell lock sound out of his head “I’ll have to start building my life anew,” he says I’m stronger and I’ve gained a new perspective on life I’m angry over my situation and the situation of others who face the same predicament and whose cases don’t have any media exposure I hope that my example will change something in the way such cases are handled.” but some of the 40 people arrested on the same day and in the same case as him are still being held in remand The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy Photo Credit: Dabarti CGI / Jacek Kadaj / Media Pictures / Shutterstock.com We bring you perspectives from around the world. 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Unique Insights from 2,500+ Contributors in 90+ Countries We have sent a link to your registered email address to reset your password. and video games — was arrested by authorities Until last week, Vaulin had been held at Warsaw-Bialoleka Investigative Detention Center with little contact to the outside world while the Polish government evaluated a US extradition request The Verge sat down with Vaulin in his jail cell for a two-hour interview — the first since his arrest — to discuss his extradition fight and his life inside jail I attended a court hearing in Warsaw to decide on a request made by Vaulin’s attorneys that he be released on bail for medical reasons Vaulin suffers from a spinal condition from well before his arrest the court unexpectedly reversed its decision he is living in a rented Warsaw apartment with his wife and five-year-old son “We are pleased that the Polish Court allowed Artem Vaulin to be free on bail,” said Ira Rothken, the Silicon Valley-based lawyer representing Vaulin. Rothken is perhaps best known for defending accused Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom “This will allow Artem to care for his health They also said Vaulin pocketed tens of millions of dollars from ad revenue Vaulin’s story is unique because few website operators have gone to jail for as long as he has without being convicted Fewer still are believed to have been sent to a place like Bialoleka Vaulin recalled that not long after his arrest he needed to be taken to the hospital for back pain He was astonished to learn he would be escorted by four policemen wearing ski masks and armed with machine guns with the siren blaring and the lights flashing Vaulin says one of his guards told him they had heard he was responsible for the murder of three people The US signaled a change in attitude on January 19th 2012 when New Zealand police busted Kim Dotcom “Thanks to all ET supporters and torrent community seems to be another warning to file-sharing moguls Bialoleka was built in 1952 during the Soviet Union’s rule over Poland The 1,300-person detention facility once held some of the leaders of Solidarity the independent Polish labor movement that became a symbol of resistance and eventually helped bring down the USSR the jail looks like any other: four drab buildings surrounded by high walls topped by barbed wire Vaulin was lying on a hospital bed that had been brought in for him With pastel-colored walls and plentiful sunlight coming through the barred window “(Jail cells) shall only be shared,” wrote the Council’s Committee of Ministers “if it is suitable for this purpose and shall be occupied by prisoners suitable to associate with each other.” Vaulin’s lawyers also stressed the facility’s administration’s disregard for Vaulin’s back pain he was forced to sleep with his leg chained to the bed Vaulin was transferred between cells seven times; he was made to carry all his possessions to a new cell in one trip: books “The first time I had so much pain,” Vaulin said It is a job and my problem doesn’t interest them One told me: ‘If you’re healthy enough to talk Though Vaulin is not a confident English speaker with the help of his English-speaking attorney and an English-Russian Dictionary Beside the fact that he was laying in a hospital bed Earlier his wife had complained that he had dropped weight during his incarceration Because he wore loose-fitting pants and a T-shirt The facility’s officials did not respond to an interview request last week The US government has said in court that Vaulin has only himself to blame for his incarceration in Poland “He is in custody based upon his own decision to resist extradition,” said Devlin Su during a hearing on Vaulin’s case last January “He could easily have agreed to extradition back when he was arrested in July The only reason he’s doing that is because he wants to put up as many roadblocks as possible.” “We believe the indictment lacks merit,” says Rothken “We have a motion to dismiss pending in federal court in Chicago.” I asked Vaulin about the charges against him and if he ever operated KAT until his arrest in 2016 Did he knowingly commit copyright infringement Vaulin said Rothken advised him not to discuss any specific allegations about his case I was never told that anything I was involved in was against the law.” clarifying that he was speaking hypothetically “If someone came to me to tell me the United States was angry with something I do a spokesperson for the US District Court in Illinois declined to comment on Vaulin’s statements prosecutors say they can prove Vaulin founded and operated KAT tried to conceal the nature of its business and flatly “ignored” the requirements under copyright law that service providers must obey if they don’t want to be liable for their users’ copyright infringement Investigators say it was Vaulin who registered KAT’s site in 2009 and it was Vaulin who updated KAT’s Facebook fan page They claim Vaulin was the one who directly controlled the bank account where millions of dollars of KAT’s ad revenue poured in each month They say they know all this by tracking his IP address Some in the tech press have mocked Vaulin for not doing a better job of concealing his identity, calling his use of an Apple email a “colossal screwup.“ But Vaulin insists he was unaware of any wrongdoing. He traveled widely through US-friendly territories during the time he is said to have run KAT. “I wasn’t afraid to travel,” he said. “I had nothing to hide.” The United States maintains that Vaulin was aware of his criminal activities, and that’s why he attempted to mask KAT’s piracy operations by tucking them inside a dummy company called Cryptoneat. “Cryptoneat is not a company,” Vaulin told The Verge. “It’s just a brand, a trademark that I created. There are no employees. It’s a good name that I liked and intended to use someday. Someone in the Justice Department made a mistake. A company called Cryptoneat doesn’t exist.” As the conversation wrapped up, stewards rolled up to his cell with a couple containers of food. Vaulin insists that he’s innocent, and he holds no grudges toward the studios that encourage the zealous prosecution of individuals taking part in file-sharing services. “No, I don’t hate [the Hollywood studios],” he said. “They are just interested in making money. They want to save their business. They don’t want to compete. But putting me in prison isn’t going to help them. Torrents aren’t going to stop. Everybody in poor countries torrents. Some of the guards [here] told me they torrent.” Correction May 24th, 9:06AM ET: This story originally misspelled the name of Tatiana Pacewicz, Artem Vaulin’s attorney. Correction May 25th, 4:56PM ET: This story originally mistakenly cited Council of Europe recommendations as EU recommendations. A weekly newsletter by David Pierce designed to tell you everything you need to download, watch, read, listen to, and explore that fits in The Verge’s universe. WARSAW: The Polish government will allow open-air cinemas to reopen rom 15 May and all cinemas to be opened on 29 May 2021 with a capacity of up to 50% for both with the rise of another wave of infections the government again ordered the closure of cinemas and theatres - first in selected provinces cinemas and theatres will be able to operate with a maximum occupancy of 50% from 29 May 2021 Activities can be carried out in a strict sanitary regime Click Here for Statements from European Film Organisations The Film New Europe (FNE) Association is the networking platform for film professionals in the CEE/SEE/Baltics region The webportal and FNE newswire was chosen as the MAIN TOOL to achieve the network’s objectives of the sharing of know how visibility of regional cultural diversity and finally the VOICE of the region FNE’s objectives include VISIBILITY for the region and AUDIENCES for films by providing a special focus on the region.