Tag: Ryszard Matuszewski

08 June 1995 (actually, formally 21 September 1995) Ryszard Matuszewski (Mohan) submits an Application for entry of Himavanti Confraternity Order to the Church Register and Association of Religions in the Department of Religions URM (Polish Government).

21 October 1995 Respond from UR: request to clarify – mainly the issue of the ecumenical character of the Order. HCO sends a clarification on 11 November 1995

26 January 1996 Main Statistical Office sends a letter with a kind request to send all data about the Himavanti Confraternity Order, including personal data and addresses of all associates.

01 April 1996 Ministry’s Office Chief sends a decision about rejecting the Declaration to create an association of religions called Himavanti Confraternity Order. Justification says that the status of HCB contains „lots of shortages and defects” but does not point out what sort of defects those are.

April/May 1996 Mohan sends a complaint to the above decision to the President of the Republic of Poland, the Parliament of RP and the Ombudsman. The answer from all those Institutions says that hearing of that issue does not lie in their competition.

14 August 1996, Antiterrorist Squad stops Ryszard Matuszewski and his fiancée in Jaworzno. Handcuffed and transported to KWP Czestochowa, he is interrogated in connection with a threat to blow Jasna Gora (church in Czestochowa) up. It happened a day before the planned yoga classes that Mohan was supposed to lead in Częstochowa, and also a few days before Pop’s arrival. Threatened that he or his fiancée would be killed and all associates would get arrested, Ryszard signs a guilty plea.

29 August 1996, the Supreme Administrative Court sent a decision rejecting a complaint from Himavanti Confraternity Order, as not all forms of appeal were used. (The answer was rambling.)

07 October 1996, KWP in Częstochowa closes an investigation into a threat to blow Jasna Gora up, establishing that Ryszard Matuszewski was guilty.

23 October 1996 Regional Prosecutor’s office presents an indictment against R.M. They accuse him that on 31 July 1996 R.M. sent an anonymous letter from Torun to the Prior of Jasna Gora, threatening to blow Jasna Gora up. The “sufferer” feared that threads could be fulfilled. (Lack of witness to the alleged action). The postcards written by Maria Karczewska and sent from Torun to Ryszard Matuszewski are treated as comparative evidence. Experts confirm that handwriting from the postcards and from threatening letters belongs to the same person. Indictment also states the psychiatrists did not find any reasons to question his mental abilities, while Ryszard Matuszewski has never been examined by anyone. They did not examine any of the three witnesses of defence that could confirm that R.M. was not in Torun on 31 July 1996; therefore, he could not write the threatening letter; witnesses were not even called to come for the court hearing. Later during the hearing, R.M. wanted to prove that the person who wrote the letter was Maria Karczewska, but the court did not want to take that information into consideration.

10 February 1997 The tax office refuses to tax Ryszard Matuszewski’s income that he honestly reported. The reason for that was that the Himavanti Confraternity Order does not exist formally, and therefore, he cannot be treated as a priest. Thus, all the income from free offerings from his religious activity was completely tax-exempt.

28 February 1997 The police stop Ryszard Matuszewski for personal revision in the area of the train station. It caused him to miss the train and a several-hour delay for the yoga classes that he was supposed to lead in another town.

29 April 1997, Czestochowa’s Court sentenced Mohan to 1,5 years in prison with 3-year probation plus court costs. What’s interesting is that in justification, the Court states that after the accused’s explanations that the letter was written by Maria Karczewska, the Court lends no credence to it and regards it as a try to avoid the responsibility for his action; according to the Court, the explanation itself was illogical and nonsensical.

05 December 1997 County Court in Częstochowa upheld the validity of the judgment after an appeal against it.

27 February 1998 Ryszard Matuszewski’s barrister submits an application for annulment to the High Court. He alleges breaching the law and, among others, rejecting the proposition to examine the witness who was supposed to be the author of the letter of threat.

November 1998 Another investigation begins, and another case against R.M. in the Prosecutor’s office in Częstochowa. Again, the letters are the evidence, but this time, the insulting letters. On 22 December Prosecutor asks for an expert psychiatrist to examine R.M. and diagnose whether he is mentally healthy. The prosecutor also decides to involve graphology experts and asks for an environmental (public) interview. The case lasts for months. Meanwhile, R.M. receives a letter asking him to come for compulsory psychiatric tests. He crosses his name on the letter and writes Izydor Matuszewski’s (Prior of Jasna Gora) and sends it to the Prior of Jasna Gora. The prosecutor and the Court take it as forging the document, which becomes another allegation against R. Matuszewski. Mohan is asked to attend a hearing in Częstochowa, where Prosecutor Kromolowski insults Mohan as well as threatens him and is physically violent towards him. While „having a break for coffee,” he orders Ryszard Matuszewski to be handcuffed. After receiving that kind of treatment being a witness, he does not attend another hearing on 07 May 1999.

07 June 1999 During another Pope’s visit, Mohan is arrested in Jaworzno and transported to Czestochowa, where he is brutally beaten, handcuffed, pushed from the stairs, etc. The police doctor controls the action and checks that R.M. is still alive. Nobody notified Mohan’s wife where and why he was for a few weeks after he was arrested. Also, nobody notifies anyone about the fact that the authority of the Himavanti Confraternity Order has been arrested. Private „investigation” of Himavanti’s associates helps to establish that Mohan is in Krakow, having a compulsory psychiatric test done on Montelupich Street. As they learn later, after being arrested and beaten, Mohan was held in Częstochowa’s prison and then transported to Kraków. Associates of the Himavanti Confraternity Order start protesting in front of the prison. There are lots of press articles coming up. A few of the associates who are praying in front of the prison are treated with spoiled eggs and with a rain of stones coming from a passing car. Despite remembering the registration number of that car and giving it to the prosecutor’s office and despite a few witnesses of the incident, the Prosecutor closed the investigation in that case after hearing the driver of the mentioned car. There is no confrontation between the driver and the injured.

In July and August 1999, Ryszard Matuszewski’s barrister submitted two propositions to cancel the arrest (first on 29 June 1999 and second on 06 August 1999). The arguments for the proposition are that Mohan was arrested to have a compulsory psychiatric test done, and as the tests were already completed, there is no point in keeping him still in prison. Especially when the allegations against him are known as charges with a very low factor of harm to the public, and he has not committed any violent crime. Prosecutor rejects both propositions. The Barrister submits another complaint to the County Prosecutor’s office (25 September), but this one is rejected. Even the Director of the prison in Herby Stare, where R.M. has been kept, submits the proposition to cancel the arrest. It has also been rejected.

13 September 1999 The court extends the temporary arrest for the next three months.

21 October 1999 High Court decides to hand the case to the County Court in Katowice (as the Court in Częstochowa was involved in the case).

17 November 1999 Court in Katowice sustains the arrest.

13 December 1999 Court in Częstochowa extends the arrest again. Later on, the arrest is extended again and again.

04 May 2000 Ryszard Matuszewski loses consciousness as a result of being kept in a closed room filled with cigarette smoke (R.M. suffers from claustrophobia). He is taken to the Hospital in Lubliniec, where the doctors diagnose him with heart disease.

02 June 2000 Court in Częstochowa decides to place him in a strict mental hospital.

17 July 2000 Mohan goes to the Mental Hospital in Rybnik. He is placed with ward number two for the most dangerous criminals (such as murderers, rapists, paedophiles, etc.), where he is given very strong drugs, although the doctors were fully aware that he was a mentally healthy person.

19 December 2000, the General Prosecutor of Poland cancelled the Court’s decision made on 02 June and ordered another hearing of the case.

05 April 2001, the High Court decides to overrule decisions made by the Court in Czestochowa and orders another hearing of the case.

16 May 200,1 Human Rights Foundation in Helsinki sends an opinion written by a group of lawyers about R.M.’s case to the Court in Częstochowa.

15 June 2001 After 2 years and 8 days, Mohan is free again.

21 January 2002 On the premises of Czestochowa’s court, the police beat Aleksandra B. The Public prosecutor’s office discontinues the investigation.

In June 2002, Mohan and Himavanti Confraternity Order submitted a second application to register the Order.

18 April 2002 Mohan and Pawel C., during a lecture on sects, are heavily beaten before the very eyes of many witnesses, packed into an unlabeled police car and taken to the police office. The police asked where they were taken answered that to Oswiecim (Aushwitz-Birkenau – the place of execution and torture of many Jews). In the police station, they are beaten again and then let free.

10 May 2002 Mohan and Izabela Tryc are beaten in the street by the police. Mohan is beaten until he loses consciousness, and his left hand is crushed. Then he is taken to the hospital. Police discontinuous the inquiry into this incident, although they have forensic examinations of Mohan and Izabela Tryc at their disposal.

On 15 August 2002, Mohan was arrested again, a day before the Pope visited the country. It was a similar style of arrest: several policemen with guns and masks forced their way into the house of R.M.’s friend in Gdynia, where he was on holiday. He is being taken to Warszawa. The witnesses submit statements that from 3the 0th of July to the 15th of August 2002, R. Matuszewski was in Gdynia, leading yoga classes for a large group of people, and he could not possibly be at the same time in the south of Poland, where he was alleged to have committed several Internet crimes.

20 August 2002 Court in Warszawa decides on a temporary arrest for three months.

In August and September 2002, many articles slandering R.M. and the Order were published, with police officers describing Mohan as a person guilty of crimes he was accused of, although, in the light of the law, a person is innocent as long as the independent court proves their guilt.

In August 2002, the Police attacked Jan Slanina, a member of the Order, in Gliwice. He was brutally beaten in the street when he was coming back home.

August 2002 Antiterrorist brigades break into private flats in Gdynia and Gliwice and rob them of practically everything, especially documents, books, computers, and data carriers. So far, the stolen things haven’t been returned.

12 September 2002 Ministry of the Interior and Administration rejects the registration of the Order. At the same time, examinations of witnesses “because of the acquaintance with R.M.” take place in CBŚ (Central Investigating Bureau) offices. During the hearings behind closed doors, the CBŚ officers also ask about the profession of faith and the general outlook on life.

October 2002 – Bozena M. & Tadeusz I.D., who later accused Mohan, attacked Andrzej C. in Krakow. They threatened to kill him and his family and demanded that he stop religious activity. The case is brought into court.

30 October 2002 Hearing takes place in court in Częstochowa, finalizing the previous case, and the court is not able to find a reason for placing R.M. in the Mental Hospital.

08 November 2002 Himavanti Confraternity Order asks the Ministry of the Interior and Administration for an explanation and reconsideration of the application.

12 November 2002 Court in Warszawa decides to extend the temporary arrest for another 3 months. In custody, the basic human rights are being broken in the case of Ryszard Matuszewski:

• He is denied the religious rite and any contact with other believers of the faith.
• R.M.’s correspondence is censored, photocopied and confiscated; the same applies to his friends’ letters.
• During the everyday walk, he is attacked by co-prisoners, and the prison guard does not intervene.
• His clothing token disappears between the custody and the prosecutor’s office; R.M. is dressed only in summer clothes during winter.
• He is denied shopping in the canteen.
• For a month, the vegetarian is starved, as his diet (resulting from his faith and general outlook on life) is not respected; meat meals are served for him.
• It is made impossible for friends to feed the starving prisoner; they are said to have an intention to poison R.M.
• The prison doctors do not recognize R.M.’s right to cure in his chosen way (with herbs).
• As a result of the incorrect diet, lack of exercise and the lack of fresh air, the earlier bursting with health and energy yogi develops a serious heart disease (Ischemia), and as the only treatment, despite his protests that he is a vegetarian, he is given a meat stock three times a day.

29 November 2002 R. Matuszewski loses consciousness; when he wakes up, he is under a drip, lying tied up and being after stomach rinsing. The hospital extract states that he lost consciousness as a result of poisoning with drugs, which is strange as he did not take any medicines at all then.

5 December 2002 The barrister, hired by R.M.’s friends, Senator Henryk Dzido, talks to the prisoner. It is his first contact with any barrister, as a court-appointed lawyer did not show up at all. Henryk Dzido files an application for the change of preventive measures for R. Matuszewski and for being released pending trial, because the arrest was unfounded and the poor state of R.M.’s health.

6 December 2002, The yogi is put under compulsory psychiatric observation, despite Częstochowa’s Court judgement.

7 January 2003 Applications for accepting the pledge are submitted by both Stowarzyszenie Macierz (an institution) and private persons: I. Barcz, Bishop Miroslaw Salwowski. All applications are denied.

10 January 2003 The Appeal Prosecutor does not accept the defence complaint about the refusal to overrule and change the preventive measure.

13 January 2003 The defence files the evidence, statements of witnesses. The district court extends the psychiatric observation to the 25th of January. A decision is issued, in which the evidence of the defence is dismissed.

14 February 2003, Arrest and psychiatric observation are extended for another three months.

4 March 2003 Because of the disastrous state of health (extensive Ischemia, which R. Matuszewski got in custody as a result of repressions of stress, mental and physical tortures, wrong diet and the lack of exercise) the preventive mean is changed for police supervision. Mohan is released from custody.

18-19 April 2003, Policemen in Bydgoszcz burst into and vandalize the apartment of one of the Order leaders (Anna Wani Sarpa’s) and take the woman into custody. At the same time, CBŚ secret services intrude on the apartment of Irena and Slawomir Barcz’s in Bydgoszcz. The flat is searched through, and many documents of the Order are stolen (Mr Barcz is the secretary of BZH). CBŚ wants to arrest Irena Barcz, but she is abroad at that time. The reason for these actions, as it later turned out, is the accusations of an alleged attack on Bozena M., the former member of the Order, working in the Dominican Antisect Group.

6 May 2003 Mohan is arrested again on a charge of participating in the attack on Bozena M. and is transported to Bydgoszcz. In fact, during the alleged attack, he is in Gliwice – a town which is several hundred kilometres away from Bydgoszcz. One of the proofs for his innocence is his signature put every day in the police headquarters in Gliwice, as he was under police supervision. The custody in Bydgoszcz, as usual, absolutely refuses to serve vegetarian meals for R.M.

Bozena M., a former member of the Order, was removed from it for financial abuses and twisted contacts with the Arabic world in Palestine. Together with Tadeusz I.-D., they swore to take revenge on Ryszard, and in public and in the presence of many witnesses, they threatened to kill Ryszard Matuszewski and destroy the Order. In September 2002, these two persons attacked one of the Order’s members, threatening to murder him and his family. The courts didn’t start the case because the intimidated person lives in hiding abroad.

Bozena M. and Tadeusz D.-I. are the main actors and characters of all newspaper articles playing in them, “the sect victims” being harmed by fate.

May 2003 – August 2003 Ryszard Matuszewski is kept in custody or transported to different prisons in the country. He suffers from hunger in custody because, although he has the right to a vegetarian diet, the meals served for him often include meat. The prison authorities refuse permission to deliver food from the outside in spite of the fact that he has such rights. The persecution takes place to a large extent in the media.

20 September 2003 The prison authorities refused two students a visit, although they had permission, explaining that Ryszard Matuszewski didn’t want to see them. The truth is that Mohan was brutally beaten, and the prison guards tried to kill him by hanging him on the bars. Traces of beating – he showed no healed injuries and bruises during visit two weeks later.

25 September 2003 On the ‘Polsat’ TV channel, a report on depriving Mohan of food in prison was shown.

19-22 November 2003 After a series of articles in the daily ‘Fakt’ concerning the HCO, the Polish Ministry of Education starts illegal and unconstitutional actions intended to ‘eliminate sects’ from schools, which in practice means dismissals from work of teachers belonging to other than the Catholic religion. It takes place practically all the time because Jehovah’s Witnesses are most often dismissed from work at school in Poland, but those illegal actions of the government are intensified. „Superintendents will be checking if the sect’s activists – who are recorded in the database kept by the police and other services – have contact with schools. They are also to forbid directors to engage in schools teachers who act in dangerous sects after work,” says the Minister, Mrs Lybacka. Part of public opinion is moved by this illegal statement and its consequences. The press hunt for an innocent woman resulted in giving her the sack, and because of her own safety after a series of threats she had received, she also left the Order.

18 December 2003 Ryszard Matuszewski is sentenced in Bydgoszcz to 3,5 years in prison. From that time on, he was transferred from one Polish penal institute to another, and this way, contact with him was made more difficult.

12 February 2004 Administrative Court in Warsaw overrules the decision rejecting the HCO’s application to register in the Church Register and Association of Religions in the Department of Religions URM.

In April 2004, the Prosecutor’s office in Bydgoszcz initiated an investigation against Ryszard Matuszewski and several other members of the HCO. They are accused of writing vulgar notes on the envelopes of letters sent to R.Matuszewski. In Jun,e R. Matuszewski is pointed out as the person who did these notes, and the case is filed in court. How a person who never received those letters could write anything on the envelopes was not explained.

5 May 2004 Court of Appeal in Gdansk partly sustains the sentence from 18th December 2003 (2 years of imprisonment are sustained). The case is redirected to the court in Bydgoszcz.

In June 2004, the Prosecutor’s office in Warsaw submitted a proposal to discontinue the Warsaw case and put R. Matuszewski in a mental hospital. The proposition is overruled.

16 July 2004 Department of Religions rejects again the application to register the HCO in the Church Register and the Association of Religions.

September-October 2004 The police battle starts against one of the major defenders of R. Matuszewski – Slawomir B. He is under investigation at work, and the prosecutor’s office in Bydgoszcz has initiated proceedings against him because of an insult to one of the prosecutors from Bydgoszcz. The alleged insult is included in a letter from Slawomir. B. to R. Matuszewski and in protests against religious discrimination sent by S. Barcz to different public institutions and units of the system of justice. The letters, which are kept by the prosecutor’s office, are in fact religious and spiritual consultations of very personal character.

3 November 2004 Court in Bydgoszcz sentences R. Matuszewski for 3,5 years’ imprisonment, which gives 5,5 years in jail in all. During the court hearings, defence witnesses are discredited, and their religious membership is jeered at in the prosecutor’s final speech. The lack of political and religious character of the case is underlined by the prosecutor; however, the court includes the testimony of Dominican anti-sect activists, who have no direct connection with this case. R. Matuszewski is treated as a dangerous criminal. Extraordinary precautions are taken during his transportation to court, and he himself is put in chains.

28th April 2005. The Court of Appeal in Gdansk reduced the sentence of the Regional Court in Bydgoszcz from 3,5 to 2,5 years of custody. In justification of the sentence reduction, the Court presented the fact that Ryszard Matuszewski had not actually attacked Bozena M. with the intention of robbery, but to frighten her. That fact questions the credibility of her evidence in the trial. Although everything clearly indicates Bożena’s M. mystification of the attack, it is not enough for complete discharge, R.M. Ryszard Matuszewski was not present during the trial.

20th September 2005. The Police attempt to violate an apartment belonging to the daughter of one of the members of the HCO, to find Ryszard Matuszewski there. Policemen have no search warrant, and no police identification card is presented. When the assaulted person calls the police, informing them that some bandits have been staying at the door, another group of policemen comes, surprised that the bandits are policemen too. Both groups go away from the apartment, treating each other with various insults.

February 2006. Dariusz P. from Kana in Katowice tries to manipulate public opinion through the medium of the press, by insinuating threats allegedly made by the HCO and Matuszewski before the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Poland! Slanderous posts about the „Macierz” Association, which takes a stand to defend minorities in Poland, appear on internet fora.

March 2006. The District Court in Bydgoszcz sentenced Ryszard Matuszewski to 10 months of imprisonment for alleged incitement to devastate the penitentiary director’s car in Bydgoszcz, where Matuszewski was residing. There was an attempt in December 2005, during the court hearings, to persuade a man imprisoned at the same time as Matuszewski to testify that he knew Mohan and helped him commit the crime, just on the basis that this man was Buddhist and vegetarian. The guilt was never proved.

6th of April 2006. Before 8 a.m., 6 men from the Police Provincial Command in Katowice invaded one of the members (also a long-term defender of human rights in Poland, Ewa S) of the HCO daughter’s house in Gliwice, breaking open the door with a crowbar. Ewa S. is treated as a madwoman and beaten up (after this police action, she goes to a doctor for a forensic examination). Her protests that policemen have no permission for searching the apartment and for house-breaking are answered by those policemen that they can do anything they want, because it is not America, and she is threatened with arrest. Accompanying her, R. Matuszewski is detained. Computer hardware and audio materials for spiritual activities are confiscated.

7th – 9th of April 2006. In the press, radio, and on TV, the hot battle against the HCO and Ryszard Matuszewski starts again. The persons responsible for propagating disinformation and inciting people to hatred and phobia, trying to make the masses believe in a possible attack on pope Benedict XVI allegedly planned by the HCO are: Dariusz P. from the Anti-Psycho-Manipulation Center from Katowice and Tadeusz D. News spread by them about the HCO is fiction in fact, and new lies and slanders are added to previously disseminated nonsense. There is information in the press that the policemen who managed to catch Matuszewski would be rewarded, because “staying at large Mohan would surely try to disturb the course of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Poland planned for May”.

May 2005 to April 2006 – Ryszard Matuszewski receives many mortal threats sent by Dariusz P. personally and by his helpers. On the internet, much slanderous information shows up, sent by Dariusz P. On many discussion lists and forums, the personal data of Ryszard Matuszewski, together with his address and court statements from classified cases, are revealed by Dariusza P.’s fascist inquisitors.
Till today, the threats are sent to members of the HCO. Numerous assaults on private houses and robberies by the policemen cooperating with Dariusz P. are increasing day by day. The police and the prosecutor’s office notified about it take no action, and many complaints and notifications about the crimes of the fascist mafia were rejected!

20th of June 2006 – there are court hearings against Ryszard Matuszewski in Warsaw based on false accusations of Jadwiga K. Despite the obvious evidence that Jadwiga K. is mentally ill and she aims to destroy the HCO and its leader R.Matuszewski, and even though experts appointed in this case are incompetent and prejudiced, the court states against R. Matuszewski. The three appointed by the court experts are women of pensionable age, not aware of what the case is all about and, according to the representative of the European Committee assigned to this case (in the meantime, the case is made classified), these pseudo-experts in the court’s corridor learnt what they should say during the hearings. They knew neither R. Matuszewski nor the files of the case, repeating the earlier learnt statements like parrots before the judge. When this fact is revealed in the courtroom, the judge makes the case classified, and the representative of the committee is threatened with arrest and a fine and thrown out of the courtroom. On 18th June 2006, the Court of Appeal in Warsaw sustained the biased decision of the Regional Court.

September 2006 – the Polish Ombudsman gets interested in the biased and wrongful decision of the Court of Appeal and addresses the Court to send him the files of the case to examine them for the possible annulment in favour of R.M.

21st of September 2006 – Regional Court in Bydgoszcz sustains the sentence of the District Court sentencing R. Matuszewski to 1 year imprisonment for offending officers in 9 letters addressed to courts in Bydgoszcz during 2004-2005, in which Matuszewski revealed irregularities and errors in conducting the cases by the police, prosecutors and the court. The case is carried out by the friends of the “offended”. In the oral justification of the sentence, the judge states that 1 year of imprisonment (the upper limit of the punishment) is not enough.

September – October 2006 – in Gliwice and Częstochowa, new court cases against R. Matuszewski start (court hearings are made classified, the information about the cases is not available). The prosecutors in both cases want psychiatric observation, although the District Court in Bydgoszcz, in the sentence from 29th November 2005, beyond all doubt stated that R. Matuszewski is sane, which is reconfirmed in the sentence of the Regional Court in Bydgoszcz on 21st of September 2006.

13th of September 2006 – in the District Court in Częstochowa, the judge chairing the case tries to intimidate the representative of our Association with the possibility of being arrested by the police, just for asking to enter the courtroom, to listen in to the court hearings. The judge called the police and demanded to remove the representative be removed from the building of the court!

30th of October 2006 – in the District Court in Częstochowa, the representative of Macierz Association was stopped by the police at the door of the court building and questioned about the purpose of her visit and searched, while no other person coming into the building was treated this way. By the door of the courtroom where the case against R. Matuszewski is held, 3 policemen show up the moment our delegation comes into the court building. The police do not let our representative into the courtroom, and the judge arbitrarily makes the case without giving any reason, laughing that it is her will.

September 2006 – March 2007 – Ryszard Matuszewski is kept all the time in prison in fact, he is taken from one custody to another all over the country, so the contact with him is made more difficult. Next cases and accusations are multiplied by Dariusz P. – an activist from fascist antisect centre KANA in Katowice, fighting against freedom of mind, Hindu religion and other Eastern religious movements.

1st of February 2007 – Regional Court in Bydgoszcz finds Sławomir B. – one of the members of the HCO – guilty of false testimony (for claiming that on 15th of August 2002 Ryszard Matuszewski carried out yoga training in Gdynia and that Sławomir B. was present there, among many other participants) and is sentenced to 1 year of imprisonment suspended for 5 years and a fine. The sentence is based on the statements of only one person who claimed that at that time R. Matuszewski was in Gliwice, ignoring this way statements of about 10 persons, who claimed that Matuszewski was at that time in Gdynia. This is the first sentence in this case. Other persons from all over the country testifying in the Warsaw case (threats of killing the pope), who also participated in the training and confirmed that R.M. was in Gdynia at the time when in Gliwice Jadwiga K. and her friends sent e-mails with threats of killing the pope, are waiting for the trials.

14th of March 2007 – in the District Court in Zabrze, a new trial starts against 60-year-old ailing pensioner Barbara L., accused by Dariusz P. (he also accuses Ryszard M.) of offending state officers. The main person from the side of the prosecution is Dariusz P., who himself is no officer at all. Several days before the case starts, a media campaign is prepared against Barbara L. and the HCO, unjustly accusing members of the HCO of acts they never committed. Dariusz P. uses for his private purposes journalists he knows from Gazeta Wyborcza, i.a., Marcin P., who in 2003 started writing lies about the Order. The same journalist now uses personal data of Barbara L., reviling the old lady and putting into her mouth words she has never said. The day before, Barbara L. received telephone calls with threats. Members of the HCO notify about these crimes. The judge groundlessly classifies the case, and the public defender refuses to take the case, because, as he says, “he is scared and wants to keep his job till the pension age”.

4th of April 2007 – in the District Court in Gliwice, the next lawsuit against Ryszard M., prepared by Dariusz P., starts and finishes the same day. The case is contrived by this anti-sect activist from Kana Centre in Katowice to destroy Ryszard Matuszewski even more. There is only one, as usual, classified hearing, and the judge does not give a justification for the sentence! In spite of R. Matuszewski’s request, the representative of Macierz Association is not allowed to get into the courtroom, nor any of the 20 persons who came for the trial. At the same time, members of the HCO receive e-mails sent probably by Dariusz P. with threats that Ryszard M. will be killed.

15th of May 2007 – in the District Court in Gdańsk, the lawsuit starts against Krzysztof U. and Agnieszka U., accused of false testimony (for claiming that on 15th of August 2002, Ryszard Matuszewski carried out yoga training in Gdynia and that they were present there, among other participants, against whom new accusations are produced by persecutors)!

6th of June 2007 – in the District Court in Zabrze, the next hearing is held against Barbara L. There are 26 persons called by the judge as witnesses for the prosecution, and no witnesses for the defence are admitted to testify! Despite the protests of Barbara L. and demands to call witnesses for defence, the judge throws the files and shouts that it is she who decides which persons are called. Amazingly, all 26 witnesses for the prosecution testify during this trial against Ryszard M. and do not even know or have never seen the accused Barbara L. Witnesses for the prosecution do not come to the court hearings, which makes the Judge furious. As we know, the judge persuades the witnesses to testify against Ryszard M., and the prosecutor from the Office in Gliwice, Michał Sz. holds all cases against Ryszard M. and Barbara L., and he conducts them personally. The next two trials are fixed for July.

WHAT’S NEXT?

These are not all the persecutions Ryszard Matuszewski and the members of the HCO have experienced, as it is not possible to describe everything, like mass-media campaigns resulting in anonymous phone calls and letters with death threats, troubles at work, job dismissals, etc.

Persecutions of religious minorities in Poland are a day-to-day problem encountered practically by all religious minorities. Infidel slaughters, administration problems, mass-media campaigns – these are only some of how ideological and religious minorities are repressed.

We have a rich material documenting cruel religious intolerance prevailing in Poland, which, despite the exterior governmental propaganda, is a fact. Here, innocent people suffer, people who have no one to turn to for help in their own country! Help from abroad is needed!

We are asking for help, support and intervention in the never-ending and strengthening discrimination of Ryszard Matuszewski and the HCO. All information is included in the attached Chronology of persecutions. Different kinds of actions against the HCO have been lasting for almost 10 years now! In Poland, it is impossible to obtain any help.