WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — A Polish prosecutor who opted not to launch legal proceedings against a vandal who painted a swastika was acquitted by a disciplinary court.
The Bialystok prosecutor, who said he refused to take action in the June 2013 vandalism because the swastika is “a symbol of Asian happiness and prosperity,” was acquitted last week following secret proceedings.
The graffiti found in Bialystok was reported to the prosecutor’s office by the local theater Trzyrzecze. Promotion of fascism in Poland is illegal and punishable by up to two years in prison.
“There are places in the world where this symbol can be associated with happiness,” Piotr Kadlcik, president of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland, told JTA. “For people born in Poland, where in each family there is a memory of the tortured, executed or starved by the people under this sign, the prosecutor’s amnesia must be a shock.”
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