The Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the police intervention carried out on 15 May 2026 at the Warsaw apartment of Tomasz Sakiewicz, CEO of the management board of Telewizja Republika S.A. and editor-in-chief of Telewizja Republika.
The case concerns one of the most widely discussed incidents in a broader wave of false emergency reports and security alerts targeting people linked to TV Republika. In recent weeks, the station and its journalists have repeatedly reported being subjected to what they describe as a coordinated campaign of harassment involving false notifications about alleged bomb threats, suicide attempts or threats to life and health. These reports led to interventions by services at private homes and other locations connected with the station.
Read more: Prosecutors open investigation into police intervention at Tomasz Sakiewicz’s home
According to the statement issued by the Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office, the investigation was formally launched on 2 June 2026, after preliminary verification activities had been carried out. Prosecutors are examining whether officers of the Intelligence and Patrol Division of the Warsaw II District Police Headquarters exceeded their powers during the intervention at Sakiewicz’s apartment on Wiktorska Street in Warsaw.
The first part of the investigation concerns the unauthorised entry into Sakiewicz’s residential premises and the inspection of the apartment for the possible presence of a person allegedly intending to commit suicide. Prosecutors indicated that this may constitute an abuse of authority under Article 231 § 1 of the Criminal Code.
The second thread concerns the treatment of another identified injured party during the same intervention. Earlier reports connected with the incident stated that Sakiewicz’s assistant was handcuffed during the police action. The prosecutor’s office is now examining whether a police officer unlawfully detained the woman and placed service handcuffs on her hands behind her back without first calling on her to behave in accordance with the law and without warning her that such a direct coercive measure would be used.
According to prosecutors, this may have been contrary to Article 34(1) of the Act of 24 May 2013 on Direct Coercive Measures and Firearms. This part of the case is also being examined under Article 231 § 1 of the Criminal Code.
The third thread of the investigation concerns the certification of false information in a detention report dated 15 May 2026. Prosecutors stated that officers may have certified untruths concerning circumstances of legal significance in the document. This aspect of the case is being examined under Article 271 § 1 of the Criminal Code.
The materials that became the basis for the proceedings were submitted to the Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office on 18 May 2026 by the Warsaw Metropolitan Police Commander. They concerned a suspected abuse of authority in connection with the police intervention at Sakiewicz’s place of residence. The documentation was later supplemented with additional materials provided by the Warsaw Metropolitan Police Headquarters during the preliminary verification stage.
The intervention took place against the backdrop of a series of so-called cascading reports sent from 13 May onwards to various services, institutions and private entities. According to the prosecutor’s office, these messages concerned alleged threats to specific facilities or to the life and health of individuals. They were mass-distributed to numerous recipients at the same time, which, in practice, justified describing them as cascading notifications.
The nature and method of distribution of these messages, prosecutors said, pointed to a coordinated and repetitive pattern intended to create a sense of threat and disrupt the functioning of institutions that received them. The reports mainly concerned people associated with Telewizja Republika S.A. A separate investigation into this broader matter is being conducted by the Warsaw-Praga Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw.
The case has raised serious questions about the limits of police action during interventions triggered by anonymous or mass-distributed emergency reports. While services are required to react to potential threats to life and security, the opening of a prosecutor’s investigation shows that the legality and proportionality of the measures used in Sakiewicz’s apartment will now be subject to formal scrutiny.
Read more: Prosecutors open investigation into police intervention at Tomasz Sakiewicz’s home
The Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office also referred to questions about possible publication of footage from body cameras worn by officers who took part in the intervention. At this stage, prosecutors do not plan to release the recordings, citing the interests of the investigation. The office added, however, that this decision may change at a later stage of the proceedings.
The statement was signed by Prosecutor Piotr Antoni Skiba, spokesperson for the Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
