crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
The legislator defined the term “Communist crime”, as per the Act, via Article 2 Clause 1,
specifying the Communist crime as an act committed by an officer of the Communist state within
the period from 17 September 1939 until 31 July 1990 that consists in application of repression or
other form of violation of human rights with respect to individuals or groups of individuals, or connected
with application of the same, as constituting a crime according to the Polish penal act, as binding in the
period within which it was committed. Communist crimes include acts committed by such officers within
the period, as defined in the previous sentence, that bear the essential of a prohibited act, as defined in
Article 187, 193 or 194 of the Ordinance by President of the Republic of Poland of 11 July 1932 – The
Penal Code, or Article 265 Clause 1, Article 266 Clauses 1,2 or 4, Article 267 of the Act of 19 April 1969 –
The Penal Code – committed against documents, as per Article 3 Clauses 1 and 3 of the Act of 18 October
2006 on disclosure of information about documents of the security services of the years 1944–90, as well
as the content of such documents, to the detriment of the persons to whom such documents pertain.
The Legislator stipulated that in order that an act should satisfy the essentials of a Communist
crime it is required that the following elements be jointly met, as included in the subjective and objective
scope of the term “Communist crime”.
These elements imply that:
– The act was committed by an officer of the Communist state;
– The act was committed within the period from 17 September 1939 until 31 July 1990;
– The act consisted in application of repression or other form of violation of human rights with
respect to individuals or groups of individuals, or connected with application of the same;
– The act constituted a crime according to the Polish penal act, as binding in the period within
which it was committed.
The abovementioned conditions, as defined by the provisions of the Act on The Institute of
National Remembrance – the Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation,
do not introduce a new generic type of crime but define, in a binding way, the criteria which should be
fulfilled by such crimes which have already been defined within the sources of law – the Penal Codes,
so that they should be assigned the essentials of Communist crimes.
Also, the term “officer of the Communist state” was defined, stipulating that it is a public officer,
as well as another person who was subject to such level of protection as the one that was assigned to a
public officer, in particular a state official or a person assigned a managerial position within a statutory
body of the Communist party.
The Act, in Article 3, defined the term of “crime against humanity”, specifying that such crimes
include, in particular, crimes of genocide, as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime of Genocide, as adopted on 9 December 1948, as well as other acts of grave persecution or
oppression due to their status as members of a particular national, political, racial or religious group,
provided these were committed by public officers or provoked or connived at by the same.
The Act specifies that crimes included in the objective scope of the Act, consisting, as per the
international law, crimes against peace, humanity or war crimes, are not subject to limitation with
respect to the period of prescription.
Following the process of development of the investigation department of The Institute of National
Remembrance – the Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, in the
years 2000–07, prosecutors of the Institute carried out, in aggregate, 4,927 proceedings pertaining to
Communist crimes, Nazi crimes, crimes against peace, humanity and war crimes.
An overall number of 198 acts of indictment were brought into court, out of which 197 dealt with
persons accused of Communist crimes.
2. The Vetting Office of The Institute of National Remembrance
Our country has launched some legal regulations that aimed to disclose work or service for the
security authorities of the former totalitarian Communist state, or secret, informed and voluntary
collaboration with these authorities of persons who exercise public functions or apply to exercise such
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