Polish attorney general’s office calls Holocaust law unconstitutional

WARSAW, Poland — The Polish attorney general’s office describes as partly unconstitutional the Holocaust law meant to defend Poland’s image abroad that instead drew criticism from Israel, Ukraine and the United States.

The statement published Thursday comes as a surprise, as Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro is also the head of the justice ministry that came up with the controversial law.

The legislation, which came into force earlier this month, imposes fines or up to three years in jail on anyone who ascribes “responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich.”

The attorney general’s office publishes its statement on the website of the Constitutional Court, which was tasked by the president with checking whether the law was constitutional.

The office says that penalizing acts committed abroad independently of the laws in place there was against the Constitution, which opposes “excessive interference.”

It adds that the law is “dysfunctional,” could have “opposite results than those intended” and could “undermine the Polish state’s authority.”

— AFP