Far-right presidential runner faces prosecution over attack on doctor
Polish prosecutors have launched an investigation into an attack against a gynaecologist by Grzegorz Braun, a nationalist presidential candidate who strongly opposes abortion.
Braun, who is also a member of the European Parliament, on Wednesday carried out what he called a 'civic detention' of Gizela Jagielska, a gynaecologist at the hospital in Olesnica, south-western Poland.
Jagielska told PAP that Braun "stormed the administrative department, blocked my way with the help of some people unfamiliar to me and locked me in an administrative room, preventing me from performing doctor's duties for more than an hour."
"He insulted and threatened me, physical violence was used against me as well because when I wanted to leave, I was pushed and yanked," the doctor said, suggesting that Braun was carrying out his political campaign at her expense.
Polish media recently reported on a story of a patient from the central city of Lodz who came to Olesnica to have an abortion due to a health risk.
On Thursday, prosecutors in Olesnica launched an investigation into alleged deprivation of freedom and violation of bodily integrity by Braun.
Braun's behaviour was strongly criticised by the justice and interior ministers on Wednesday.
Braun has a long history of controversial behaviour. In December 2023, he shocked the world by disrupting a ceremony at the Polish parliament that marked the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah as he used a fire extinguisher to put out the menorah candles. The list of his offences also includes the assault on and defamation of a former health minister; vandalising a Christmas tree decorated with EU and Ukrainian flags in a court building, damaging the property of the German Historical Institute in Warsaw during a lecture by a Polish-Canadian Holocaust scholar; and disrupting a Holocaust remembrance ceremony at the European Parliament. (PAP)
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