It is a story that could easily serve as the basis for a film script about Polish history, but also about the ruthlessness of the communist security service and the red ‘caste’ of judges. The portal wPolityce.pl revealed that Deputy Attorney General Robert Hernand had filed an extraordinary complaint with the Supreme Court, supporting the award of fair compensation to the family of a man who was tortured as a teenager during a UB investigation and subsequently imprisoned in prisons and labor camps. In ‘free Poland’ the court awarded the injured party a ridiculous amount of 10,000 złoty for years of forced labor. zloty!
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The man joined an anti-communist organization as a teenager in the 1950s. Two years of contact with the communist ‘justice apparatus’ had a tragic impact on his life.
Torture in custody
Documents collected by the Institute of National Remembrance show that as a teenager he was a member of the anti-communist organization “Union of Freedom Evolutionists”. Her activities were the subject of an investigation by the UB, during which members of the organization were arrested. He was arrested as a 16-year-old. He was accused of preparing to obtain a weapon by forcibly taking it from a citizen militia officer, possessing a weapon and painting anti-communist slogans.
During the six-month investigation he was malnourished and beaten. After spending a month in a cell with criminals, he was taken to the detention center of the Public Security Bureau in Lublin, where 10 prisoners were held in a cell with an area of 8 m2. There was some straw on the concrete floor and that was her only equipment. The prisoners were dirty and dirty. In December 1952 he was transported to the new UBP building, where conditions were better: instead of straw, prisoners could sleep on a bunk bed.
— The National Public Prosecutor’s Office describes the man’s tragedy.
In defense of the mother
In January 1953, he was brought to the courthouse for questioning about another member of the organization. Then his mother arrived, hoping to see her son. When she went to greet him, she was pushed away so brutally by one of the police officers that she fell on the stairs. The man couldn’t bear what he saw and punched the police officer, knocking him to the ground. Several officers immediately rushed at him, overpowered him and then handcuffed him so tightly that the handcuffs cut the skin on his wrists. For this act he was sent to a lonely cell without windows, where the cold water reached his ankles. It was the middle of winter then. After 48 hours in such conditions, he had such a cold that he coughed and vomited blood
Red executioners and forced labor in the mine
The Military District Court in Lublin sentenced him in a judgment dated February 6, 1953 to 7 years’ imprisonment, an additional penalty of deprivation of public rights and civil honors for a period of 2 years, and confiscation of all property. He then halved the prison sentence under the Amnesty Act of 22 November 1952 and imposed a total prison sentence of four years.
After the verdict, he was transferred to prison in Lublin Castle. It was the winter of the century, the temperature dropped to minus 30 degrees and there was no glass in the cell windows. After serving his sentence for two months, he found himself in the Central Progressive Labor Camp in Jaworzno, modeled on the Soviet labor camps, where thousands of young people were subjected not only to exhausting work, but also, using the methods of the Soviet educator Antoni Makarenko. , to indoctrination. After the fall of communism, the Institute of National Remembrance ruled that the treatment of prisoners in this institution constituted a crime against humanity
– PK remembers.
The camp authorities sent the teenager to work in the hard coal mine of Jaworzno – Szyb “Upadowa-Feliks”. It was of a slave nature, under conditions that violated all safety standards, often resulting in fatal accidents. Many young people could not bear the hardships physically and mentally and committed suicide by throwing themselves on the electrified wires surrounding the labor camp. Malnutrition caused him to contract scurvy and lose most of his teeth.
Illusory freedom
The man was released on July 4, 1954, two years after he fell into the hands of the communist ‘justice system’. He was exhausted and sick. The authorities blocked his education. He was called up for compulsory military service, but he was judged to be an enemy of the communist system and was again put to work in a mine, this time in Chorzów. He worked there for two years as a wall loader in one of the most dangerous sections of the mine, on galleries 60 to 100 cm high, on his knees. Civilian miners refused to work because of the difficult conditions and dangerous work. For two years he was forced to work without the right to a Sunday off. For years, nightmares woke him at night, and the memories of being beaten, insulted and threatened with death could not be erased from his memory. For years he treated joint and spinal pain and rheumatism suffered during his captivity
10 thousand PLN – symbolic compensation
The verdict of the communist military court convicting the man was annulled on September 13, 1991 under Article 1(1), 1 and 2 Section 1 of the February Law of the Provincial Court in Lublin. Although the man was awarded damages, the Lublin District Court subsequently set the amount at only PLN 10,000 in its decision of 25 November 1992. PLN (calculated taking into account the denomination). This is how “free courts” treated a person horribly mutilated and oppressed by the communist state.**
“Caste” is against it till the end
The man did not get justice. He died in 2020. His wife and daughter took action to obtain fair compensation, taking into account the enormous scale of the damage that had a huge impact on their husband and father, and consequently on the entire family. By application of October 22, 2021, they demanded, under the February Act, payment of a higher amount corresponding to the damages suffered in connection with the implementation of the judgment of the Military District Court in Lublin of February 6, 1953.
The court in Lublin rejected the request in its judgment of December 14, 2021. The court did not question the man’s opposition activities or his damage. However, he pointed out that the man had already received compensation in 1992., and its amount was not questioned. He referred to art. 8 section 4 of the February Act, according to which there is no question of obtaining compensation if, as a result of extraordinary review, cassation or reopening of the proceedings, compensation has been awarded by operation of law. However, this provision stipulates that obtaining an additional benefit is possible if this is justified by fairness considerations. However, the court found no such reasons.
An appeal has been lodged against this ruling, but the Court of Appeal in Lublin, in its judgment of October 22, 2022, discontinued the proceedings for damages and stated that the Court of Appeal correctly ruled that due to the presence of a negative condition in the case in The form of res judicata made it impossible to resolve the case in favor of the applicants. The family filed an appeal in cassation with the Supreme Court, but this was rejected as manifestly unfounded
– informs the public prosecutor’s office.
The court declared the provision dead
After analyzing the case, Deputy Prosecutor General Robert Hernand stated that the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Lublin dated October 22, 2022 should not remain in legal circulation. To this end, he has filed an extraordinary complaint with the Supreme Court.
He claimed that the ruling closed the path for applicants to obtain the compensation to which they were entitled, thereby rendering Art. 8 section 4 of the February Act dead. Paradoxically, the provision that should lead to actual recovery for the injured parties, with its incorrect interpretation, consisting in the failure to recognize the legal considerations of fairness in the case, became the basis for closing the possibility of resolve the matter fairly. in accordance with the principles of justice and equal treatment.
– we read in response to questions from the wPolityce.pl portal.
He pointed to examples of case law that point to a completely different interpretation of the provisions of Article than the Court of Appeal in Lublin. 8 section 4 of the February Act in the context of res judicata (res judicata), in the case of a previous request for damages and damages under art. 8 section 1 of the February Act, and subsequently a request for a supplementary benefit under art. 8 section 4 of this Act. For example, the Supreme Court determined in its ruling of November 24, 2021 that when first claiming compensation and damages under art. 8 section 1 sentence 1 of the February Act, in order to subsequently demand the granting of a supplementary benefit on the basis of art. 8 section 4 of this law, there can be no obstacle in the form of res judicata. The view that the content of the latter provision constitutes a deviation from the principle of res judicata has long been anchored in case law.
– PK informs us.
Violations of regulations
In an extraordinary complaint, the Deputy Prosecutor General alleged that the Court of Appeal in Lublin had violated a number of provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, including those arising from art. 30, the principle of dignity, by not granting compensation based on equity considerations for the full amount, and the principle of equal protection of property rights other than ownership, arising from art. 32 section 1 related joke. 64 section 2 by limiting the possibility of seeking redress based on the principles of equal protection under the law for all and equal treatment by government.
The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure were also violated, including art. 17 §1 point 7, by recognizing that the fact that the man had previously received compensation constituted res judicata, while the correct application of the provisions of the February Act allowed the court to reassess the case. The Deputy Prosecutor General requested that the contested judgment be annulled and that the case be referred back to the Lublin Court of Appeal for reconsideration.
– informs PK.
WB
Source: wPolityce