crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
Dariusz Gabriel
Prosecution of Nazi and Communist crimes in Poland
1. The Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation to execute the
investigation function of The Institute of National Remembrance
Following Poland’s regaining independence in late 80’s of the last century, after the first partially
free elections in June 1989, the judicatory, as represented by the Government of the Republic of Poland,
faced the challenge of full recognition and punishment of Communist crimes.
The Commission, proceeding with the activity performed by the former Central Commission for
Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland (Glowna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce),
based on the Act of 4 April, extended in 1991 both the subject-matter and the time scope of investigation
and prosecution of crimes. It included, as one of the objects of interests, investigations concerning
deportation of soldiers of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and other independent forces, as well as
inhabitants of the Eastern Borderlands (Kresy Wschodnie) of the 2 nd Polish Republic, into the USSR,
with respect to crimes committed by officers of the Military Intelligence (Informacja Wojskowa) and
the Ministry of Public Security of Poland (Ministerstwo Bezpieczenstwa Publicznego), pacification of
the Polish land between the Vistula and Bug rivers, as well as other crime to be defined as war crimes
and crimes against humanity.
It was vital to develop new legal regulations to provide for typology of cases of unjust behaviour
and acts by the authorities of the Communist state against the citizen. It was necessary to specify the
term “Communist crime” with respect to a penal and legal tool which would comprise one of the
elements of recognition and punishment of Communist system.
The Act of 6 April 1984 on the Central Commission for Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland
(Glowna Komisja Badania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu), as binding at that time (Dziennik
Ustaw /The Gazette/ of 14 April 1984, No. 21, Item 98, as amended), did not grant The Institute of
National Remembrance (Instytut Pamieci Narodowej) a possibility to deal with crimes committed after
1956, thus narrowing the time census until 31 December 1956, and, at the same time, affording a
statutory definition of the Stalinist crime as one committed to the detriment of an individual or group of
individuals, in the period until 31 December 1956 by the authorities of the Communist state or provoked
or connived at by them. The regulations of the Act did not either provide for a basic function: execution,
within reasonably prompt time limits, of criminal proceedings against persons who are suspected of
committing Stalinist or Nazi crimes. The reason for this was a procedural difficulty, wherein substantive
decisions – ones concluding the proceedings – were issued by a public prosecutor, which resulted in
lasting proceedings and was likely to violate the right of he victim to have the perpetrator tried within
reasonable time limits. The society perceived each year of impunity of perpetrators of crimes of the
Communist system as incapability and perplexity of the state. The Constitution adopted by the highest
authority of the Republic of Poland – the National Assembly – in Article 44, defines the requirement
for the period of prescription with respect to crimes, not prosecuted for political reasons, committed by
public officers or ordered by them, which were suspended until such reasons cease to persist.
Therefore, both the Government of the Republic of Poland and MP’s bills, as well as the
Extraordinary Commission on consideration of draft acts concerning granting general access to the
archives and documentation of the former state security authorities, which was established by the Seym
(the lower house of the Polish Parliament) of the 3 rd Term on 23 April 1998, aimed to prepare a legal
regulation on the level of a Parliamentary Act, that would satisfy the requirement, as imposed by the
Constitution, as well as take account of the will of the Legislative.
The subject-matter of the work by the Extraordinary Commission was considering a need to include
in the proceeded Act, that the activity of The Institute of National Remembrance should cover the
period following the year 1956 as well, so that perpetrators of all Communist crimes that had not been
recognised up to that moment, could be prosecuted on the grounds of the penal code by the judicatory.
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