--- see  http://pl.indymedia.org/pl/2004/02/3872.shtml for Polish language version ---

*Legal handbook*

The purpose of this handbook is to help participants in a
demonstrations, occupations and other forms of direct action. Know
your rights!

*At the demonstration*

Come as a group, leave as a group, stay in a group and stay alert.
Make sure you move in good order - keep together and keep moving - and
avoid entrapment (in a cul-de-sac surrounded by police cordons). Do
not remain or leave alone. Most arrests occur at such times.

According to a new planned law on people gathering in a public place
(in Feb 2004 this had not yet become law), it will be forbidden to
participate in a demonstration if you are masked, or if it is difficult
or impossible to identify you. The planned law excludes participation
of such people from any public gathering - i.e. you can be immediately
arrested. The new law extends the financial responsibility of the
organisers and leaders of any gathering, and makes everyone who
participates in a demonstration financially responsible for any damages
happening during or immediately after the end of the demonstration.

Beware of still and video cameras. The images may be used as evidence
against you. Provide yourself with a change of clothes or a quick
change of appearance, in case your clothes show traces of potentially
criminal activity (paint for example). After a demonstration, the
police are liable to track down participants according to appearance,
or clothing descriptions, and they may very well make arrests in
adjacent streets, in buses or trams, even some hours after a
demonstration. Do not loudly brag about what you did or about what you
know other people have done. Try not to mention names. You could be
"caught red-handed" at any moment.

Keep some identity documents on you.

If someone is stopped beside where you find yourself, it's a good
idea to think of a solidarity action, e.g. a blockade by sitting on
the ground in the path of the police car holding the arrested person.
Well organised non-violent resistance can often free an arrested activist.


*Detention and identity controls*

Language alert: Polish has (at least) two different words for levels
of being held by police: ,,zatrzymanie" - short term, up to 48 hours -
which we translate by "detention" and ,,aresztowanie" - longer term -
which we translate by "arrest".

If you are stopped on your own and find yourself surrounded by police
people during an action, best say nothing, refuse to acknowledge any
accusations made and stoically await developments. Don't panic!
Generally refuse to make any declaration except for the formal
requirements: your identity, age, address and employment. If there
are several of you, try and exchange identities and telephone numbers
in order to avoid being isolated.

Police officers, when taking action such as detaining someone or
checking identity, are obliged to:
1) provide their rank, given name and family name; even non-uniformed
policemen (such as the ABW - secret police) are obliged to provide
an identity document so that you can write down their name and
the name of their service
2) provide the legal basis as well as the specific reason for their action

When detaining someone, police have the obligation to check that you
are not carrying weapons or other dangerous objects that could be used
to carry out a crime or other offence or could be used as material
evidence (which is why you should not take your address book, illegal
drugs, nor even a penknife with you, and if you have a mobile phone,
keep in mind that the police may read all the phone numbers you have
stored on it - don't store numbers of activists at high security risk).

If you have been subject to violence, do not hesitate to insist on
seeing a doctor and receiving a certificate of sick leave even if you
are not in employment (it costs about 50 PLN but it's worth it, it's
an extremely serious piece of evidence against the police).

In the police station (komisariat) a report on the detention is prepared
and given to the detained person. Within 7 days you have the right
to file a protest in court against the detention. You have the right to
telephone to whoever you wish. You have the right to contact with a
lawyer.

The detained person has the right to be immediately freed, if:
1) the reason for the detention is determined,
2) the court decides to free you (in the case that you file a protest)
3) in the opinion of the doctor, your life or your health would be
in danger if you remain detained

In any case, you must be freed within 48 hours of being detained
(,,zatrzymany"), unless a court order is obtained for temporarily arresting
you (you will be ,,aresztowany").

During a body check, you have the right to insist on the presence of
someone you wish. You have the right to be body-checked by someone of
the same sex as you.

*Arrest*

Temporary arrest is the imprisonment of someone actually accused
of carrying out a crime. Being arrested does not imply guilt. If you
are guilty of the action and what sentence you would have are decided
by the court based on a judgment at the end of the criminal proceedings.

Only a court (not police) can decide to temporarily arrest you. Before
temporary arrest, a court or a prosecutor listens to the accused.
You have the right to use the telephone. You have the right to a lawyer.
In deciding whether or not to temporarily arrest you, your own claims
will be heard.

In order for you to be temporarily arrested, there must exist the following
conditions:
Firstly - it must be very probable that you committed the crime.
Secondly - at least one of the following conditions must be satisfied:
* a reasonable concern that you may escape or hide
* a reasonable concern that (your freedom) would cause difficulties for
the court procedures
* it is necessary to protect the court procedures because you risk a
punishment of 8 years or more imprisonment (,,surowa kara")
* a reasonable concern that you may commit new crimes against life or
health or against general security

,,Surowa kara" ("raw punishment") is that when the accused risks
an imprisonment whose upper limit is at least 8 years (if the crime
risks imprisonment from 3 months to 5 years, then the upper limit is
5 years).

For participation in a demonstration, the penalty can be e.g. for
assaulting a public servant - max 10 years. However, most criminal
actions carried out during direct actions are misdemeanours (,,występki",
"delits") which risk lower penalties (e.g. for infringing upon a police
officer's body space - max. 3 years, for insults - max 1 year) as well
as minor offences (,,wykroczenie").

*Minor offences (,,wykroczenie")*

In relation to participation in a demonstration we can be blamed for
minor offences such as making graffiti, distributing pamphlets or
showing banners in public places, destruction of public or private
property, using rude words etc. Penalties include:
1) arrest
2) imprisonment
3) fines
4) reprimand (critical words against you)

The punishment of arrest lasts at least 5 and at most 30 days; it's
counted in days. The procedure happens in front of a magistrate for
minor offences. The verdict on the punishment is not recorded in the
Central Punishment Registry, so in a formal sense is "not a punishment".

Is it common knowledge that the trilateral commissions annual meeting will be also in Warsaw, Poland just a week after the above? will definatly be worth hanging around!

For those who have never heard of the trilateral commission

In short, Trilateralism is the current attempt by ruling elites to manage both dependence and democracy -- at home and abroad. To put it simply, Trilateralists are saying: The people, governments and economies of all nations must serve the needs of multinational banks and corporations.

"The Trilateral Commission is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the United States.

The Trilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power political, monetary, intellectual and ecclesiastical. What the Trilateral Commission intends is to create a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nationstates involved. As managers and creators of the system ,they will rule the future." - U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater in his 1964 book: With No Apologies.

(en) Police against activists
Police repression against groups involved in the preparation of the Alternative Economic Forum in Warsaw is escalating. People considered by the police to be activists have been summonsed to police stations or visited at home. Many of these people are outsiders, whose names only were written down during a Critical mass and have nothing in common with the upcoming events in Warsaw.

Owners of places having some sort of link to anti-Summit activities have also been frightened. In Warsaw, after a standard police check in the Praha Cinema (in which some of the Alternative Conferences were to be held), the management withdrew from its offer to the Coalition of Freedom Groups (Anarchist Federation and anti-authoritarian groups). In Wrocław, because of the threats from the police, an information meeting about the Anti-Summit planned at the Centre of Cultural Reanimation was cancelled. In another incident, plainclothes police stated to activists looking after this place, that they could not host any guests planning to come from or go to Warsaw. Similar situations have occurred in other cities (Warsaw, Poznań, Rzeszów, Suwałki, Toruń).

Police turn up everywhere where the Anti-Summit logo can be found. In Warsaw they prevented a concert, which was intended to support the alterglobalists' alternative forum, from being held. People who stick up posters relating to the Alternative Forum risk higher penalties than usual. At least one person was stopped by police for carrying a poster advertising the PoProstu and Indymedia internet sites, which also had an Anti-Summit logo.

There is concern that border authorities will block the entry to Poland of foreign activists. With the help of Europol and the Schengen Information System, a "black list" [pl] of people [en] who are refused access to our country until 30 April has been established. Someone from Germany, who last year was arrested during an anarchist conference in Warsaw, had problems at the Polish-Ukrainian border. In Gdańsk, an activist from the Anarchist Federation in Białystok was arrested.