Earlier this year, a Polish Ikea manager fired an employee who shared homophobic messages on the branch’s internal website, but now a prosecutor has charged the manager for discriminating against the employee’s religious rights.

The employee had taken offence to Ikea’s supporting of LGBT+ rights, insisting it went against his religious beliefs. He then used the branch’s intranet to post biblicial passages which called for death and blood on homosexuals, furthering describing gay people as an abomination. When challenged, the employee refused to remove his comments, leading the Human Resources manager of the Polish Ikea store to fire him.

Now the manager has been charged by a prosecutor who says that the employee’s rights have been violated as he should be able to express his religious beliefs. If the case is successful, the manager could face a fine and up to two years in prison. The company is also facing a civil lawsuit by the employee.

A spokeswoman for the Ikea group stated, “As an employer, we will provide all the help and support to our charged employee”.

This is just the latest case in Poland whereby those who report homophobia are seen as the troublemakers. Only yesterday, GCN reported on a group of students who were taken in and interrogated by the police for hours when they complained about a homophobic professor.

The students had made an official complaint on the professor’s lectures, stating the teachings were filled with “anti-choice ideology, homophobic views, anti-Semitism, denominational discrimination, information incompatible with modern scientific knowledge and promotion of radical Catholic views”.

The students, who were not aware at the time why they were being brought in, were then interviewed at a police station and left shaken and crying after hours of interrogation.

In April, attempts were made to introduce a bill into Polish law outlawing sex education under the claim that those who teach it “familiarise children with homosexuality”. Last year, Amnesty International Poland Director, Draginja Nadazdin spoke out against the introduction of the bill, saying “This bill, which equates homosexuality with pedophilia, exposes the disturbing homophobia that underpins this law. Politics should be kept out of the classroom.”