The Court of Appeal in Warsaw has discontinued a 26-year long trial against former communist police officer Ireneusz K. accused of murdering 19-year-old Grzegorz Przemyk in 1983.  

The court has ruled that one of the most notorious cases of the communist era has expired after over a quarter of a century.  

Ireneusz K. faced five trials. Four times he was acquitted but later the sentences were annulled by the courts of higher resort. Only in May 2008, the former communist police officer was sentenced to eight years in prison after being found guilty of the fatal beating of Grzegorz Przemyk, 19-year-old son of a dissident poet Barbara Sadowska.  

On 12 May 1983, Grzegorz Przemyk was celebrating passing his final school exam near the Royal Castle in Warsaw. He was detained by members of the infamous communist ZOMO riot police units, and severely beaten at the police station. Przemyk died two days after the incident.

Przemyk’s funeral turned into a massive demonstration against the communist authorities and his case became a symbol of resistance. (mg)