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Polish MEP convicted for calling teenagers 'noisy runts'

17 April 2012, 17:53 CET

(WARSAW) - A Polish court ordered conservative European Parliament member Ryszard Legutko on Tuesday to apologise to two youths for calling them names in 2009 when he served as the country's education minister.

The court in the southern Polish city of Krakow ruled Legutko had called the secondary school students "noisy runts" after they asked for the removal of religious symbols from their classrooms.

The boys from the southwestern city of Wroclaw wrote a petition to their headmaster, citing a verdict of the European Court of Human Rights.

Legutko, who then served as education minister in the right-wing government of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, labelled the petitioners publicly as "noisy runts spoilt by their parents" and their petition as "a typical snivellers' yell".

The court also ordered Legutko to contribute 5,000 zlotys (1,200 euros, $1,600) to charity.

Legutko, who was not present in the courtroom, can file an appeal against the verdict.

Public schools in Poland, where 90 percent of the population are Catholics, often have crosses hanging above the blackboard next to the white eagle, Poland's national symbol.


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