Polish Government Officially Charges Nergal in Behemoth Merch Case

Adam “Nergal” Darski and the Polish government go together like Tuff and grindcore. As you may recall, the latest beef between the Behemoth frontman and his country’s leaders began in October, when the band’s ‘The Republic of the Unfaithful’ merch design (above left, in case that isn’t obvious) was accused of mocking the national coat of arms of Poland. Which is a no-no there.

Now, wyborcza.pl (via The PRP) reports that Nergal has now been formally charged along with the shirt’s designer, Rafal Wechterowicz, and Maciej G. Cała, who I believe acted as the merch’s distributor (Google Translate is a little unclear on that one). The trio pled not guilty “and refused to provide explanations” (Google Translate is trying as hard as it can, you guys). If convicted, they could face fines, “restriction of liberty” (probation, I assume), or “punishment of deprivation of liberty for up to one year” (jail time, again, I’m making an educated guess).

Nergal took to Instagram to demonstrate his lack of fear:

“Well… this is the first thing that hit’s me after coming back from a relaxing and sunny holiday trip. Me and 2 other dudes r accused of profaning Polish emblem. What a bummer! PIS-driven Poland is trying its best to nail my ass down… as an example I guess. But first thing is: it is NOT a Polish emblem. Second… let’s leave those arguments for the court case which is to begin shortly…! Is their limits to their obscurity and blindness? Bring it on!”

It goes without saying that we’re all rooting for Nergal to emerge from this conflict victorious. But I still think his persecutors are idiots for not realizing that they’re playing right into his hands when they do shit like this. The more they tell kids Behemoth is dangerous, the more kids will wanna listen to Behemoth. If they send him away for a year on account of a fucking t-shirt design, they might as well just order as many Behemoth albums as Amazon.pl has in stock.