Polish police chief who fired grenade launcher in office is charged two years later

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WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s former national police commander was belatedly charged on Monday with illegal import and unintentional endangerment after accidentally setting off an anti-tank grenade launcher in his office in 2022.

Jaroslaw Szymczyk received mild injuries when the grenade launcher, which he said he had received as a gift during a visit to Ukraine, went off as he was moving it. Pictures obtained by local media showed that it had blasted through the floor, damaging the office below.

The opposition at the time accused the governing nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, voted out last year, of trying to cover up the incident and demanded that Szymczyk be held accountable. PiS defended him and said he was the target of a political witch-hunt.

On Monday, with an alliance led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition having replaced PiS in government, prosecution spokesperson Piotr Antoni Skiba said two charges had been brought.

One was possessing a portable grenade launcher without a licence and bringing it into Poland without reporting it to customs and tax authorities, the other: unintentionally endangering the lives of many people and a large property.

Skiba said Szymczyk had said he did not understand the charges and refused to respond to them. Reuters was unable to reach Szymczyk for comment.