Case of assault on Kwaśniak to go to appeals court – attempted murder possible
The District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów has referred the case of Krzysztof A. to the appeals court, finding that the act may be classified as attempted murder.
District court transfers case of assault on former KNF deputy head to higher court
The District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów decided on Wednesday to transfer the case of Krzysztof A., known as "Twardy", to the Warsaw Appeals Court – according to Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. The accused is the direct perpetrator of a brutal assault on Wojciech Kwaśniak, former deputy head of the Financial Supervision Commission, which took place in 2014. In the reasoning of the ruling, judge Jakub Iwaniec indicated that the circumstances of the event may point to attempted murder.
The decision to transfer the case is not final. The defence lawyer for Krzysztof A. announced that he would lodge an appeal.
Judge: "The circumstances of the event may be considered on the grounds of attempted murder"
The court made its decision after hearing for over two hours an expert in forensic medicine, who analysed the nature of injuries sustained by Kwaśniak during the assault. The expert testified that the victim may have received as many as a dozen or so blows from a telescopic baton, including four to the head, and their force was "considerable". "It can be said that it was fortunate that there were no deeper injuries that genuinely threatened life," the expert said.
Judge Iwaniec stated in the ruling that "the circumstances of the event may and should be considered on the grounds of attempted murder", whilst reserving that he merely "regards the version of attempted murder as probable" and does not prejudge it. He indicated that it is possible to conclude that the accused, whilst delivering blows to vital areas of the body – the head and face – reckoned with the possibility of causing the victim's death. For this reason, the court found that the case falls within the jurisdiction of the appeals court, which hears cases involving felonies.
A motion to transfer the case to the appeals court was submitted back in May by Kwaśniak and his representative, lawyer Jerzy Naumann.
Defence: extradition rules out change in charge
The defence of Krzysztof A. argued that the transfer of the case to the appeals court is inadmissible because the extradition of the accused from Kyrgyzstan was carried out in connection with a specific charge – and attempted murder was not that charge. Judge Iwaniec rejected this argument, explaining that extradition regulations refer "not to the legal classification, but to responsibility for the act that is the subject of the proceedings".
The court did not formally extend the provisional remand in custody of Krzysztof A. at the same time, since he remains deprived of liberty in connection with other cases. "Taking into account the fact that the accused remains in isolation in another case and minimal possibility of leaving the penitentiary unit, provisional remand is no longer necessary," judge Iwaniec reasoned. This ruling too is not final.
Assault in Wilanów and the SKOK Wołomin scandal
In 2014, Wojciech Kwaśniak, then deputy head of the KNF, was assaulted and brutally beaten outside his home in Warsaw's Wilanów district. Kwaśniak was overseeing an inspection at the Cooperative Savings and Credit Union in Wołomin, from which – according to the prosecutor – three billion złoty were misappropriated. The beating of the KNF deputy head is considered one of the most prominent aspects of the scandal connected to this financial institution.
Krzysztof A. was charged in autumn 2015 as the direct perpetrator of the assault. In total, the indictment covered four persons. The main accused was Piotr Polaszczyk, a former officer of the Military Information Services who held positions in the management of the Wołomin SKOK, to whom the prosecutor attributed incitement to beat the KNF deputy head. In March last year, the Warsaw Appeals Court found Polaszczyk guilty and sentenced him to eight years' imprisonment. The defence's cassation was dismissed by the Supreme Court in March of this year.
Detained in Kyrgyzstan, brought to Poland
Krzysztof A., after being released from the remand prison where he had been held for several years, stopped appearing at hearings and in 2022 disappeared from the country. In June last year, TVN24 reported that the wanted man had been detained in Kyrgyzstan, where the FBI had "tracked him down". At the end of March this year, Gazeta Wyborcza reported that he had been extradited to Poland. As a result, the case of Krzysztof A. returned to the court schedule.
Since the beginning of December last year, the main trial in the SKOK Wołomin scandal case has been proceeding before the Warsaw-Praga Appeals Court. Over 60 persons sit on the accused bench, and the indictment itself comprises 29 volumes and over 5,500 pages.
Source: PAP (Marcin Jabłoński, Ewa Fiutka)
Source: Dziennik Gazeta Prawna