A Polish court jails the organizers of an anti-war stunt that saw a dozen people strip naked last year at the former German Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau before one of them slaughtered a lamb.
The court in the southern city of Oswiecim found Belarussians Adam B. and Mikita V. guilty of desecrating a memorial site and of animal cruelty and handed them prison sentences of a year and a half and 14 months, respectively.
“Auschwitz is a memorial site, a symbol of martyrdom and a cemetery for thousands of human beings,” says prosecutor Mariusz Slomka.
“We must send a clear signal… that these kinds of stunts should never be repeated.”
Most of the 10 other defendants, aged 20 to 27, are sentenced to community service while one received a fine of 10,000 zloty (2,400 euros or $3,000).
The group carried out the unprecedented stunt in March 2017 in front of the camp’s infamous “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work makes you free”) gate, where they draped a white banner with the word love written in red.
— AP
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