Stanisław Wawrzecki (October 5, 1921 – March 19, 1965) was a director of State-Directed Meat Trade in Praga (part of Warsaw), and the last person sentenced to death and executed in Poland for economy-related crimes after 1956.
In the 1960s, the Polish United Workers' Party created a special committee that allegedly discovered fraud, involving theft, falsified invoices, and bribery, relating to the meat trade in Poland in the 1960s, termed the "Meat Scandal". Attorneys representing Wawrzecki's son in a lawsuit decades later accused Polish authorities of fabricating the "Meat Scandal" as part of a propaganda campaign to redirect attention from the government's inability to provide food for its citizens due to inefficient agricultural production.[1]
Wawrzecki, the director of the Municipal Meat Trading Company, was accused of being involved in fraud connected to the "Meat Scandal". He was convicted of corruption and sentenced to death, allegedly without the right to appeal his death sentence, in violation of his rights under the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic.[1] Allegedly, Wawrzecki admitted to receiving over 3.5 million złote, a crime that ordinarily carried a maximum punishment of five years in prison. However, Council of State refused his request for commutation. Wawrzecki was executed by hanging. He remains the last person executed in Poland for a non-military crime other than murder, and will remain so given Poland's abolition of the death penalty.[2] His trial was influenced by strong pressure from the communist authorities, especially from then PUWP First Secretary, Władysław Gomułka.
Aftermath
In 2002, the Polish Supreme Court turned down the death sentence post factum, arguing that this was a clear miscarriage of justice. Nevertheless, the Court did not rehabilitate him because it was the nature of the sentence which was disputed, rather than his guilt. In April 2021, one of Wawrzecki's sons, Piotr Wawrzecki, was granted 200,000 złote as compensation.[1]
One of Wawrzecki's sons, Paweł Wawrzecki, is a well-known Polish actor and a former host of Koło Fortuny, the Polish version of Wheel of Fortune.[3]
References
- 1 2 3 "Hogan Lovells Warsaw achieves important victory in long-running dispute concerning property confiscated in one of the most controversial communist sham trials". Hogan Lovells. 2021-04-12. Archived from the original on 2023-04-16. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
- ↑ "50 lat temu zakończył się proces uczestników tzw. afery mięsnej [50 years ago, the process of the participants of the so-called the meat scandal]". Dzieje (in Polish). 2015-02-02. Archived from the original on 2023-04-16. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
- ↑ "Ochrypłym głosem błagał o życie. Czarna karta sądownictwa PRL [In a hoarse voice he begged for his life. Black card of the judiciary of the People's Republic of Poland]". Ksiazki (in Polish). 2021-05-02. Archived from the original on 2023-04-16. Retrieved 2023-04-16.