She embezzled thousands from state coffers. The court sentenced the “anti-communist” from the Polish People's Republic

On Monday, the district court in Olsztyn sentenced a woman to a 10-month suspended sentence for extorting benefits for anti-communist activities in the Polish People's Republic. Oppositionists who testified that she had acted in conspiracy received suspended prison sentences and fines.

The judgment is invalid.

Process of 8 people responsible for, among others: for unfavorable disposal of property and assistance in committing a crime lasts from 2024. The accused were oppositionists during the times of the Polish People's Republic (the biographies of some of them can be found in the Solidarity Encyclopedia). The main defendant, Władysława W., is responsible for extortion of PLN 24,000 zloty. an allowance that was undue to her – according to the prosecutor's office – for her opposition activities during the times of the Polish People's Republic. Those who helped her gain the status of an oppositionist are now co-defendants in her trial.

On Monday, the court sentenced Władysława W. to 10 months in prison, suspended for 2 years, and obliged her to compensate the damage, i.e. return the amount of PLN 24.7 thousand to the Office for Veterans Affairs. The remaining defendants charged with aiding and abetting were sentenced to sentences ranging from 7 months in prison with a conditional suspension of the sentence for 1 year to fines of PLN 500.

As the court justified, the evidence collected by the prosecutor's office allowed the defendants to be blamed. – Although the defendants did not plead guilty, they did not question the prosecutor's findings. The main defendant claimed that she had been active in the anti-communist opposition since the early 1980s, but this contradicts the findings of the prosecutor, who collected evidence that Władysława W. started working in Solidarity in the 1990s, the court said.

As the court justified, already at the stage of preparatory proceedings some of the defendants began to withdraw their claims, hence they could count on lighter sentences.

The acts attributed to the defendants are punishable by 6 months to 8 years' imprisonment.

According to the prosecutor's office, the main defendant in the trial of Władysław W., according to the prosecutor's findings, from October 1, 2018 to April 6, 2023, acting in order to obtain financial benefits, led the Office for Veterans and Oppressed Persons to unfavorably dispose of State Treasury property in the total amount of PLN 24.7 thousand. zloty. The accused submitted to the office an application for confirmation of the status of an anti-communist opposition activist or a person repressed for political reasons, presenting in the application and at a later stage of the proceedings conducted by the office false information regarding the circumstances intended to prove her alleged participation in the activities of the anti-communist underground organization in the years 1980-1989. In fact, W. started cooperation with NSZZ “Solidarność” only after 1990.

To prove her activity in Solidarity, Władysława W. provided the Office for Veterans and Victims of Oppression with statements from seven people. They confirmed that in the times of the Polish People's Republic she distributed underground press and leaflets. One of these people pleaded guilty during the prosecutor's proceedings, explaining, among other things, that the statement was written under Władysława W.'s dictation. People who submitted false written statements and then confirmed it in the proceedings before the office were charged with aiding and abetting the commission of a crime and giving false testimony.

Władysław W. is also charged with persuading other people to help her commit a crime by signing statements on her behalf containing false information intended to prove the defendant's involvement in opposition activities in the 1980s (PAP)

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