Indictments filed against judges and prosecutors from communist period

A number of Polish judges and prosecutors are facing the prospect of criminal prosecution for their alleged role in supressing opposition to the imposition of martial law in 1981.

Prosecutors from Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), the body charged with investigating communist-era crime, have submitted several indictments and motions to the Supreme Court concerning criminal liability for judges and prosecutors from Poland’s communist period.

Thousands of people were arrested and interned after General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the Polish leader, introduced martial law on December 13, 1981 in order to crack down on Solidarity, the free trade union that had become a direct challenge to the one-party state.

Karol Nawrocki, the IPN president, told journalists on Monday that judges from those times were still adjudicating in Polish courts.

"During the year, prosecutors from the commission on the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation submitted 38 applications to the Supreme Court," he said, adding that the applications were intended to bring several judges and prosecutors to justice.

Prosecutor Andrzej Pozorski, the head of the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation's main commission, said "the verdicts from the martial law period are being reviewed."

He also said the military courts, which were used to adjudicate on cases brought against civilians, were there to guard the system, not the rights and security of citizens.

"The military courts were one of main elements of repression," said Pozorski, adding that that their judgments were also being reviewed.

The government lifted marital law restrictions in 1983.