Martial law murder case bound for Strasbourg

Photo: European Court of Human Rights (press materials)

The case of Piotr Majchrzak was closed by Poland's Supreme Court in April this year, with the court upholding an earlier appeal court verdict that there is no evidence to confirm the identities of the culprits.

“It is extremely unjust and wrong that the Polish State has completely turned its back on the parents of a boy murdered during martial law,” the family's lawyer Aleksandra Graf has declared.

Student Piotr Majchrzak was attacked in the centre of Poznan, western Poland, on the evening of 11 May 1982.

He died in hospital on 18 May, having not regained consciousness.

His parents have always held that the crime was carried out by functionaries of ZOMO, Poland's riot police during the communist era.

Teresa Majchrzak, mother of the deceased, announced her Strasbourg bid just days after the family of a proven victim of police violence was awarded compensation by the European Court of Human Rights.

The court ruled earlier this week that Poland must pay 20,000 euro to the father of Grzegorz Przemyk, a schoolboy beaten to death by police in the summer of 1983.

Przemyk's father had complained to the court that the Polish authorities “had not conducted an effective investigation to establish liability for his son’s death.” (nh)

Source: Wprost, Gazeta Wyborcza