Accounting for criminal acts committed by the communist Polish state and its officers requires establishing the principles of their responsibility. An act passed by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland delivered legal grounds to this responsibility from 18 December 1998, concerning the Institute of National Memory – a committee for pursuing cases of felony against the Polish nation. The provisions of this act enable officers of the former communist regime, which conducted criminal proceedings in matters having a political base, to be brought to justice. Judging and sentencing the civil servants responsible for bending the law to realise the political objectives of the Polish United Workers’ Party and communist authorities,constitutes a just and appropriate way of dealing with these past events. Complementing justice in this respect should be a warning to future generations that immorality and injustice will always be subject to retribution.
The subject of this article is an analysis of selected decisions of the District Military Court in Rzeszów, in which sentences were imposed for the crimes against the state, regulated by the Penal Code of the Polish Army (kodeks karny Wojska Polskiego, k.k.WP). The provision of article 88 § 1 k.k.WP in conjunction with art. 86 k.k.WP, which formed the basis for the convictions in the analyzed cases, concerned crimes against the state. The essence of this crime was to enter into an agreement, in order to attempt to change the political system or for the removal of organs of state power through violence. While construing art. 88 § 1 in conjunction with art. 86 § 2 k.k.WP the Military District Court in Rzeszów assumed that the constituent elements of this crime have been satisfied, for example, simply by the fact of meeting with members of the organization fighting for independence and becoming acquainted with the illegal activities of such organizations, or by reading their leaflets. Thus, for the fulfillment of art. 88 § 1 k.k.WP, the Court considered any action which could be attributed to efforts to change the political system, even if it was not proven during the trial that the defendant engaged inany organizational activity.
The article brings the verdict of the District Military Court in Rzeszów to people accused of committing offences against the state from 86 article of the criminal code of the Polish Army closer, namely, an attempt to change the system of the country or remove the organs of the au- thority violently. The very court claimed that proving any connection to the WiN association, including casual social contacts with the association members, was the basis for ascribing the crime to them from the 86 article of the criminal code of the Polish Army and the guilty verdict. The court did not take into account the fact that the activity of some convicts was not connected with the aim to use violence, and proved organizational activity was limited to reading WiN press or taking part in organizational meetings. Strict verdicts of people who were proven even casual contacts with the WiN organization, seem to prove that the court used 86 article of the criminal code of the Polish Army to eliminate political opponents from the society.
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