Pop star loses appeal over offending religious feelings

Doda: photo - Wikipedia/Jakub Kocoj

Dorota Rabczewska, known to the public as Doda, was initially sentenced in January this year, having claimed in an interview that the Bible “was written by someone who was hammered on wine and who'd been smoking herbs.”

The Warsaw District Court rejected her appeal on Monday, upholding the original sentence.

Miss Rabczewska had been brought to court owing to complaints filed by Ryszard Nowak, chairman of the privately run Nationwide Defence Committee Against Sects, and Stanislaw Kogut, a senator for the conservative Law and Justice party.

In her original defence, the singer had claimed that she had not intended to offend anyone, and that the cited herbs “were certainly therapeutic ones” and the alcohol in question “sacramental wine.”

Ryszard Nowak has been involved in several high profile cases of this kind, including one against Miss Rabczewska's former boyfriend, Adam Darski, frontman of death metal band Behemoth.

Darski, known to his fans as Nergal, was taken to court for tearing up a copy of the Bible during a 2007 concert. The long-running case was ultimately dropped.

At present, the Democratic Left Alliance party is working on a draft bill that will cut the maximum penalty for insulting religious feelings from two years imprisonment to six months.

Meanwhile, Rabczewska may not appeal to Poland's Supreme Court, but her lawyer is considering an extraordinary appeal to Poland's Omsbudsman on Civil Rights. An appeal to European Court of Human Rights could also be pursued. (nh)