A suicide shakes Poland – and shines a bad light on the Trudeau government, which wants evidence of possible election interference by China checked

On February 17, 15-year-old Mikołaj Filiks took his own life. Today he was buried, tomorrow he would have turned 16 years old.

The case shocks Poland, because the suicide seems to be the result of illegal entanglements between politics, justice and media.

Too much detail in the report

A report on Radio Szczecin – a local radio and news portal in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship – set the ball rolling. It reported on a pedophile official in the regional government. The first sentence states that the commissioner for addiction prevention, Krzysztof F., was convicted in 2021 “of pedophilia, incitement to drug use by children and possession of a significant amount of intoxicants”.

Then follows the sentence in which many see an unnecessary and ultimately deadly continuation of the tragedy:

There are only three parliamentarians in Szczecin. After a quick Google search, everyone in Poland knows: the politician is Magdalena Filiks. She is a mother of two daughters and a son – Mikolaj Filiks.

The crime had already taken place in August 2020, the perpetrator Krzysztof F. was convicted in 2021. To protect the victims, the public did not hear about it until the end of 2022, when the story suddenly spread like wildfire through the Polish media landscape. Out of the blue, Mikolaj Filiks was put in the spotlight as a victim of sexual abuse.

A few weeks later, on February 17, he took his own life.

For the opposition party, one thing is clear: Mikolaj Filiks has fallen victim to an ugly political power struggle.

The ruling party

Magdalena Filiks is a member of the Civic Platform (PO), the largest opposition party in Poland. In a coalition with the agrarian-conservative Polish People’s Party (PSL), the PO ruled the country from 2007 to 2015 – until it was ousted from the top of the government by the national-conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS). The latter has since ruled with an absolute majority, which according to the organization Human Rights Watch is increasingly undermining the rule of law.

Since coming to power, the PiS has been in constant conflict with the EU. The reason is a judicial reform that aims to make the judiciary subordinate to political power.

Ongoing research by Human Rights Watch confirms that the courts and justice system have been repeatedly used for political purposes to undermine the rights of women, girls and LGBT people in particular. For example, in 2020 the Polish Constitutional Court abolished almost all exceptions to the strict abortion law.

Limited press freedom

Where the party used the state media as a mouthpiece for a long time, in 2021 it also seized many private media. The state oil giant Orlen bought the local media publisher “Polska Press” in 2020, giving the government practical control over 20 of the 24 local newspapers, 120 regional weeklies and 500 online portals.

The opposition is tired of that. In any case, in December they declared war on the public news channel TVP Info. According to them, the broadcaster has become a propaganda channel for the ruling party PiS and that is why they are calling for its abolition with a bill. They presented it to the House of Representatives on 19 December.

Instrumentalization of a tragic case

Back to the case of Krzysztof F.

A closer look reveals just how much the author Tomasz Duklanowski has exploited the details of the case – and how much this plays into the ruling party’s hands. Throughout the text he emphasizes that the convicted person belongs to the opposition party PO and to the LGBT movement.

His rhetoric also seems to be deliberately fueling the false narrative that homosexuals are also pedophiles. In his report he writes:

The state broadcaster TVP Info also reported on the case in the same tone, referring to the material of Radio Szczecin. However, attentive eyes did not miss the fact that the report on TVP Info went online two minutes before Radio Szczecin. As the Polish news portal OKO.press writes, this could indicate orchestrated propaganda activity. The primary goal would have been to discredit the PO’s environment. That is not far-fetched: parliament will be elected in the autumn and experts believe that a change of power is possible.

Tomasz Duklanowski wants nothing to do with it. He defends the disclosure of the information, claiming that the PO tried to hide the fact that a pedophile belonged to their party. Speaking to Republic TV station, he said that in his opinion, the focus would now be on him alone to…

Polish Minister of Education and Science, Przemysław Czarnek, agrees. In an interview with the state broadcaster TVP info he emphasizes:

Mixing media, judiciary and government

Polish judge Olimpia Małuszek from the city of Gorzów contradicts such accusations in the daily newspaper Wyborcza. Criminal trials involving rape, pedophilia or assault are held behind closed doors to protect the victims. Data that can be used to identify victims may not be passed on at all.

She therefore believes that the Public Prosecution Service is in cahoots with the government party and the media:

In the end, the case, which was already concluded in 2021, was reopened in the media to harm the opposition party.

Opposition leader Donald Tusk finds clear words for this on Twitter:

The Polish Press Council has already investigated the matter and found a violation of ethical principles. So far without consequences. Neither Radio Szczecin nor Duklanowski have responded to the allegations.

The public prosecutor has now opened proceedings in the case of the suicide of the son of Magdalena Filiks. As various media reported, this was done on the basis of Article 151 of the Penal Code. This punishes those who “incite suicide” or “assisted suicide”. However, it is more likely that this is a routine measure in suicide cases.

Krzysztof F. is serving a prison sentence of four years and ten months for child abuse, drug possession and inciting drug use among children.