{"id":592278,"date":"2026-10-21T23:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T20:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=592278"},"modified":"2026-10-22T10:04:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T07:04:52","slug":"polish-court-acquits-soldier-who-wounded-migrant-at-belarusian-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/polish-court-acquits-soldier-who-wounded-migrant-at-belarusian-border","title":{"rendered":"Polish Court Acquits Soldier Who Wounded Migrant at Belarusian Border"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A military garrison court in Warsaw acquitted a second lieutenant in the Polish army on October 21. The officer wounded a migrant while on duty at the border with Belarus in November 2023. This was announced<\/a> by W\u0142adys\u0142aw Kosiniak-Kamysz<\/b>, Poland\u2019s deputy prime minister and minister of national defence.<\/p>\n

According to the minister, no misconduct in the performance of his duties was proven against the serviceman. Kosiniak-Kamysz described the shooting as accidental and stressed that the officer had received legal assistance and support from a military group dedicated to protecting soldiers\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

“A serviceman carrying out his duties cannot be left alone, even in a difficult situation. As I said during my meeting with the second lieutenant, no member of the Polish Armed Forces will be left without assistance,”<\/em> he wrote.<\/p>\n

The acquittal is not yet legally binding. According to Onet, in considering the case, the court took into account the possibility that the weapon had discharged accidentally when the serviceman fell.<\/p>\n

What Happened at the Border<\/h2>\n

The incident occurred in November 2023 near the village of Topi\u0142o in the Bia\u0142owie\u017ca Forest. Soldiers were pursuing a group of people who had crossed the border from Belarus. During the chase, the second lieutenant tripped and fell, after which his weapon discharged. The bullet wounded a Syrian national. The servicemen provided him with assistance.<\/p>\n

The officer was charged with negligent handling of a firearm and unintentionally causing bodily injury. However, expert examinations found that the weapon could have discharged during the fall even if its safety catch had been properly engaged. The court ruled that negligent handling of the weapon by the second lieutenant had not been proven.<\/p>\n

The prosecution had asked the court to conditionally discontinue the proceedings and order a payment of 2,000 zlotys to the injured man. The Syrian man\u2019s representative sought 50,000 zlotys in compensation. The officer\u2019s defence insisted on a full acquittal.<\/p>\n

The Case Sparked Political Debate<\/h2>\n

Reform.news reported on the trial in January 2026<\/a>. At the time, experts\u2019 findings concerning shortcomings in the weapon and the injured man\u2019s compensation claim were already being discussed.<\/p>\n

The case also became the subject of a dispute over support for soldiers serving at the border. In an official statement on January 30, Poland\u2019s Defence Ministry claimed that immediately after the incident, the officer had received no assistance from the ministry, which was then headed by Mariusz B\u0142aszczak<\/b>. According to the ministry, support was provided after Kosiniak-Kamysz took office. The ministry also stated that the minister disagreed with the criminal charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A military garrison court in Warsaw acquitted a second lieutenant in the Polish army on October 21. The officer wounded a migrant while on duty at the border with Belarus in November 2023. This was announced by W\u0142adys\u0142aw Kosiniak-Kamysz, Poland\u2019s deputy prime minister and minister of national defence. According to the minister, no misconduct in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":592279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6ad9b597d0db9.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Polish Court Acquits Soldier Who Wounded Migrant at Belarusian Border"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143291,143284],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-592278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-army","category-world"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":592280,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592278\/revisions\/592280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}