Communist crimes (Polish legal concept)

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Communist crimes (

Unitas Foundation, the Institute for Information on the Crimes of Communism, the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania, and the Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism
.

Polish law

In legal terminology – as defined by the Article 2.1 of

Republic of Poland issued 18 December 1998,[1] "communist crimes" constitute crimes committed by the functionaries of the communist apparatus between 17 September 1939 and 31 December 1989. The crimes defined therein form either political repression or direct violation of human rights of an individual or a group; including those, otherwise named in Polish criminal law of that particular time. The concept also covers several other illegal activities prohibited by Polish laws already in place since 1932, such as falsification of documents and using them with the intent to cause harm to people mentioned in them.[2]

The concept of communist crimes was legally introduced in 1998 and revised several times.

prosecution of people in authority who committed crimes against Polish citizens as well as the Polish state.[4] The definition is conceptually similar to the legal concept of a Nazi crime.[5]

Articles 4 to 7

A functionary of a communist state is defined as a

Główny Zarząd Informacji Wojska Polskiego.[6] The communist crimes could have also been committed in Poland by members of foreign civil or military services,[7] such as the KGB, NKVD, SMERSH, and Stasi
.

Crimes, recognised by

war crimes, are not affected by the statute of limitations in Poland. Those crimes are not affected either by the former amnesty or abolition decrees issued in communist Poland before 7 December 1989.[8] In case of murders, the Polish statute of limitations begins on 1 August 1990 and runs for 40 years, and for 30 years for other crimes.[9]

The concept has replaced the term Stalinist crime (zbrodnia stalinowska) previously used in Polish law for similar acts,[5] just as the concept of Nazi crime has replaced that of the Hitlerite crime. Both Stalinist and Hitlerite crimes were first defined by Polish legislation in 1991.[10]

While drafting the concept of the communist crime, Polish legislators specifically discarded the notion that a communist crime is equal to a Nazi crime, or that the legislation of the communist crime can be based on that of the Nazi crime (already defined in the legislation of 31 August 1944), as while similar on some levels they are different enough on others to make analogies unacceptable.[5]

Communist crimes are primarily investigated by the

prosecution powers, created by the same legislation that defined the concept of the communist crime in 1998. Two examples of such unsolved communist crimes are the Augustów roundup and Kąkolewnica massacre
, also known as the Baran Forest massacre.

See also

Sources

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b Ustawa.., Art. 2.2.
  2. ^ "Ustawa z dnia 18 grudnia 1998 r. o Instytucie Pamięci Narodowej - Komisji Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu". (299 KB). Art. 2.1. . Retrieved as of 8 May 2007.
  3. ^ Ustawa.., see headings of document for list of legal acts published in Dziennik Ustaw modifying the original document
  4. ^ The concept of a communist crime is also applicable if the victim was not a Polish citizen but was wronged on Polish territory.
  5. ^ a b c Rajman, Genowefa (2006). "Zbrodnie Komunistyczne w koncepcji Polskiego prawa karnego" [Communist crimes in the concept of Polish criminal law]. Military Legal Review (in Polish) (1). prawo.lex.pl. Archived from the original on 25 January 2007.
  6. ^ Ustawa.., Art. 5.1.
  7. ^ Ustawa.., Art. 5.2.
  8. ^ Ustawa.., Art. 4.3.
  9. ^ Ustawa.., Art. 4.1.
  10. ^ "32. posiedzenie Senatu RP, część 1 stenogramu: Witold Kulesza" [32nd Senate Meeting of the Republic of Poland, part 1 of the transcript: Witold Kulesza] (in Polish). senat.gov.pl. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 8 May 2007.

External links

Media related to Communist crimes (Polish legal concept) at Wikimedia Commons

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