Posted on 05/31/2007 2:15:01 PM PDT by lizol
Polish court sentences 15 policemen in 1981 massacre at coal mine
Reuters Published: May 31, 2007
WARSAW: A Polish court Thursday sentenced 15 Communist-era riot policemen to up to 11 years in prison for killing nine striking miners protesting against the 1981 martial law that crushed the Solidarity union.
The sentence came after years of failed attempts to prosecute those responsible for the shootings, the bloodiest incident of martial law. Thousands of Poles were arrested and Solidarity was banned until communism collapsed in 1989.
"This is good news for Polish society, good news for the public sense of justice," Kazimierz Kutz, a film director who has produced a documentary about the incident, said. "The verdict gives justice to the people who died in 1981 and to those who were affected by those deaths."
The relatives of the dead miners stood up in the courtroom in Katowice and sang the national anthem as the judge read the verdict.
Riot police officers, backed by tanks, smashed into the barricaded Wujek colliery in southern Poland on Dec. 16, 1981, three days after martial law was declared.
As workers fought back with bottles and bits of iron, the police opened fire, killing nine miners and wounding 21.
The suppression of the protest has become a symbol of the brutality of martial law, declared by the Communist leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski.
Two earlier trials had cleared members of the police unit because of lack of evidence. Following appeals, a new trial took place.
The highest sentence of 11 years behind bars went to Romuald Cieslak, the leader of the police unit, for giving an order to shoot. Other members of the unit received lighter sentences of at least two and a half years.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Mother of a murdered young miner
The communist murderers
Good for the Poles!
Years later, on their own, with due process (which the bad guys will always question) the Poles go about fixing an injustice. It says something about this society as a whole.
11 years seems like a light sentence. But at least history is getting set straight.
>>>”Where’s the leadership, where are those who ordered them to do this?” Walesa told the gazeta.pl Web site. “Where is the head which controlled all this?”<<<<
We shall find out soon.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1833916/posts
11-nation commission agrees to start transferring Nazi archive to Holocaust researchers
GOOD!
after the sentence was made... all of the people attending the trial started to sing Polish Anthem... (any of Polish FReepers has a movie of that? it was in the TVP)
“enuff” said... I guess that’s clear enough...
Now it’s turn to trial Jaruzelski...
too bad that some people (parents of the victims) did not live to see the verdict :(
At last we have independent courts. They will appeal to Strasburg anyway and EP will condemn us:)
Girly man edwards will be on the next flight with hopes of suing someone so he can get more pocket money to gbet a new dress and have his hair and nails done.
Girly man edwards will be on the next flight with hopes of suing someone so he can get more pocket money to bet a new dress and have his hair and nails done.
I don’t know why but everytime EP condemns us I feel much better :)
well said
bump
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