One of the biggest stories of the last week was an appeal sent to the Polish supreme court in the trial of Adam "Nergal" Darski, who is being tried for ripping up pages of the bible at a 2007 Behemoth show. After successfully defending himself, citing freedom of speech, the case was brought to the supreme court, who last week, decided against Nergal's favor, re-opening the case.
According to a new report by EUObserver, the European Commission, the executive body preceding over all 27 countires in the European Union, including Poland, are standing up for the Behemoth frontman. The EUObserver article states:
It said on Wednesday (31 October) in a written statement for EUobserver that "national blasphemy laws are a matter for the domestic legal order of the member states."
But it added that EU countries must respect international pacts.
It cited the European Convention of Human Rights, a Poland-signatory treaty attached to the Strasbourg-based rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, on freedom of expression.
"This right protects not only information or ideas that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also those that offend, shock or disturb," the commission said.
Nergal could face up to two years in prison for something he did on stage, but it looks as if the EU may have his back on his original defense of freedom of expression. Overall, this is all a silly case and I'm sure the people of Poland have much more pressing matters to attend to. We'll be following this case if there are more updates. We are hoping for the best for Nergal.
