A key witness in the case of the unsolved murder of former chief of police  General Marek Papala died in a prison hospital, Sunday night.

Artur Zirajewski, aka “Iwan”, was found dead last night by hospital staff after suffering a “pulmonary embolism”, according to Gazeta Wyborcza.  He was serving fifteen years in prison for participating in the murder of a Gdansk businessmen in 1998.

In his testimony Zirajewski indicted that Polish businessman Edward Mazur could have ordered the assassination of General Marek Papala.

Papała was murdered in 1998 while parking his car meters away from his Warsaw apartment. The lengthy investigation led public prosecutors to Edward Mazur, who is now living in the U.S. The Papała contract killing is thought to involve former communist security services agents, high-ranking members of the government and organized crime groups.

Polish justice authorities tried to extradite Mazur in 2005 but, two years later, the Federal Court in Chicago ruled against the extradition because of insufficient evidence and lack of “”probable cause”. Federal Magistrate Arlander Keys said that the Polish government’s reliance solely on the testimony of Zirajewski, a convicted killer, for the extradition request was “shocking and offensive.” (di/pg)