Yet another libel case was concluded in our favour the District Court in Warsaw. On 19 December 2023, the court ordered Balli Marzec, the self-proclaimed “leader of the Kazakhstani opposition abroad”, known for her anti-Ukrainian views, to apologise and pay a total of PLN 20,000 compensation to the Open Dialogue Foundation for violation of personal rights.
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Balli Marzec is a blogger and self-proclaimed leader of the allegedly democratic Kazakh opposition in Poland, over the years making vicious, absurd and fake accusations against us, including that “ODF is a mafia” serving the interests of post-Soviet oligarchs, that we train islamic insurgents in Poland, corrupt politicians and judges and prepare a hit against her etc.
In the verdict, the judge ordered Marzec to issue a public apology and pay compensation. Notorious for her sympathy vis-à-vis extreme right-wingers (and the PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński), as well hate speech based on anti-semitism and anti-Ukraine xenophobia, Marzec used to be featured in Moldovan and Kazakhstani propaganda, several PiS’ and far right’s mouthpieces, including TVP, wPolityce.pl, wPolsce.pl , TV Republika, Tygodnik Solidarność, and wRealu24.
“Ablyazov’s mercenaries, taking a huge amount of money for their services, go on countless trips around Europe, trying to bribe politicians and journalists. Politicians are sometimes intimidated by them with threats of picketing or sending critical material to the media. And from journalists they demand that they write about Ablyazov as a persecuted oppositionist,” she wrote on the website of the “Kazakh Community Association”, while on the website ballimarzec.pl she published an article about us, entitled “The Open Dialogue is waiting for its time”, in which she stated, “Mafia is money and power — and they have both money and politicians”.
These slanders served as one of the sources of a report written by Marcin Rey entitled “Activities and connections of the Open Dialogue Foundation” dated August 2017, which damaged the Foundation’s good name. The author obtained the information from a person of questionable integrity, namely Balli Marzec, who is known for her long-standing bitter dislike of Ablyazov and of ODF. Moreover, Balli Marzec is mentioned first in the report, among several individuals referred to by the author who were or are in legal conflict with the Foundation. Marcin Rey, like Balli Marzec, was sued by ODF for violation of personal rights. The dispute concluded with a court settlement and an apology from the author of the report.
Previously, Balli Marzec’s words served as a source for a slanderous article by Wprost weekly in 2014, which ended with our lawsuit and subsequent rectification by the editors.
There is also a quasi-humorous aspect to the Balli Marzec storyline: this character is known for her extreme egocentrism and conspiratorial perception of reality. In her narrative, she is (single-handedly) the only real opposition from Kazakhstan (to which Mukhtar Ablyazov constantly wants to “sign up”), the Foundation appears as an all-powerful mafia structure that dominates public life in Poland and its state organs, the courts in Poland are corrupt and deliberately ignore her complaints, and Balli Marzec herself is a steadfast freedom fighter who compares her lonely protests in front of the Presidential Palace to the heroic student uprising in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The pains to which Balli Marzec went to become a candidate in the 2015 presidential elections, and then to run for the Sejm as a member of the Kukiz’15 party, add a certain colour to her efforts. She has also repeatedly expressed her anti-Ukrainian views, in which she was supported by the Kresy.pl portal.
The right-wing media favourite is now to post an apology for defaming ODF, its President Lyudmyla Kozlovska and the Chair of the Foundation’s Supervisory Board Bartosz Kramek and keep it published for 60 days on all her profiles and websites. Additionally, she was ordered to pay legal costs.
Marzec did not even appear at a single court hearing; instead, she accused us of corrupting judges. And before that, among other things, that we are training Islamic militias for subversive activities in Poland, that we are wooing and intimidating leading politicians in Warsaw and Brussels, that by impersonating the Internal Security Agency we are preparing an assassination attempt on her and Jarosław Kaczyński (Balli Marzec’s typical rhetoric about us is attached as an appendix to this text).
As the court put it, “the Court was discomforted by the fact that the defendant did not continue to fight to defend her case. She has vilified and continues to vilify ODF and the plaintiffs, submitted no evidence or witnesses, did not testify, did not prove her case. There was no doubt that the defendant’s allegations were characterised by high aggression and exaggeration and were defamatory; her ill-will was evident, hence damages were due in the amount requested by the plaintiffs.”
This is our sixth victory (and seventh successfully concluded — the above-mentioned court settlement apology) in the Polish courts for the protection of personal rights. We would like to thank, as always, the law firm Lach Janas Biernat for its efficient representation.
Read also:
- Marcin Rey’s apology. Court settlement concludes the dispute (March 11, 2023)
- 20 lawsuits filed against Law and Justice. Interim measure against TVP (October 11, 2019)
- Response to the report “Activities and connections of the Open Dialogue Foundation” dated August 14, 2017 (November 6, 2017)
- Open Dialogue Foundation: Response to the defamatory campaign by alleged “indipendent” Kazakh NGO (March 6, 2017)
- ‘Wprost’ publishes a Correction Notice regarding the violation of personal rights of the Open Dialogue Foundation (October 27, 2016)
Cover photo: x.com
Artykuł Libel case win against Balli Marzec over hate speech and fake news lawsuit pochodzi z serwisu Open Dialogue Foundation.