Polish pro-life activist sentenced and fined for report that tied homosexuality to pedophilia and HIV: Mariusz Dzierżawski lamented the fact that a court in Gdansk had ruled to be slander what he considers to be medical warnings about homosexuality

Mariusz Dzierżąwski, a member of the board of the Right to Life foundation, was sentenced on Wednesday by a court in Gdańsk to one year of community service and a fine of 15,000 Polish złoty (€3,204).

The case involved a publicity campaign by the foundation against the WHO guidelines on LGBT sex education. The publicity included details concerning HIV infections and scientific research on the relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia. According to the court judgment, public information on these matters represented slander against LGBT activists.

The indictment, which covers three issues, was the product of accusations against the Right to Life foundation by the Tolerado association. First, the Right To Life foundation was accused of publishing scientific data alleging that homosexuals were more likely to commit acts of pedophilia. Second, the foundation allegedly published information that homosexuals were more likely to be infected with HIV. Third, the foundation accused LGBT campaigners of engaging in pro-LGBT sex education that encouraged children to engage in homosexual practices.

The court accepted the assertion of the LGBT activists that the foundation’s publications were in effect defamation against people of a homosexual orientation, lowering their reputation and thereby affecting their educational activities. The court sentenced Mariusz Dzierżawski, the board member responsible for the campaign, to one year’s community service and a fine of 15,000 Polish złoty (€3,204).

Commenting on the outcome of the court case, Dzierżawski said that “today’s verdict is reminiscent of mechanisms in totalitarian times” and represents nothing less than preemptive censorship with the assistance of fines and constraints on the freedom to publish facts. He said the foundation would not allow itself to be cowed by such “judicial persecution,” that it would appeal against this verdict and would continue its information campaigns against pedophilia. The information the foundation had put into the public domain was scientific data about the consequences of homosexual practices and the LGBT lobby’s designs with regard to sex education of children, he added.