The death of Barbara Skrzypek. Patron Mikołaj Pietrzak: Five hours is a normal interrogation in the economic case

– The very beginning of the interrogation is to receive data, and then questions are asked very slowly, there is a so -called free statement. The witness responds, someone is protocling, it continues – explained in “Facts after Facts” Patron Mikołaj Pietrzak, dean of the District Bar Council in Warsaw. He commented on the death of Barbara Skrzypek, which PiS politicians are trying to link to the interrogation she had taken a few days earlier.

A member of the management board of Srebrna and the Management Board of the Institute Lech Kaczyński, close associate of the president PIS Barbara Skrzypek died on Saturday. Confirming this information, the head of PiS Jarosław Kaczyński suggested that prosecutors were responsible for her death, who on Wednesday, March 12, questioned her – as a witness – in the investigation in the case of Srebrna.

The audition was led by prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek. This assured on Monday – and earlier a similar position was expressed by the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw – that the violinist and her representative did not submit any comments as to the course of the interrogation, and the interrogation itself was to take place in a friendly atmosphere. In turn, PiS politicians pay attention to the fact that the violinist's representative was not allowed to participate in the interrogation.

What the course of the interrogation looks like

The case was commented on in “Facts after Facts” Patron Mikołaj Pietrzak, dean of the District Bar Council in Warsaw.

As he said, in public space “various elements of this interrogation are emphasized.” “Failure to make a proxy, the duration of this interrogation,” he calculated.

– Let's start with the fact that () a five -hour interrogation in a case that concerns economic phenomena is a completely normal interrogation – he said. He noted that “from what we know, there was several minutes break” during the action.

– Remember that the very beginning is receiving data, and then questions are asked very slowly, there is a so -called free statement. The witness responds, someone protocols, it continues, this is not a normal course of conversation, so it is very complex – he described.

– Five hours is not an extremely long interrogation in the economic matter. This is absolutely normal. The last hour is reading the protocol, correcting the protocol, signing – he explained.

Patron Pietrzak: In most cases, witnesses appear without a representative

Pietrzak added that “the second thing you are talking about is a matter of preventing a power of attorney.”

In this context, he was asked if when witnesses were to be questioned by the prosecutor's office, they appear with a proxy. “In most cases without,” he said.

And when they appear with a proxy, he is in most cases allowed?

– The witness is a party. He is neither accused nor the victim. From the perspective of a criminal trial, a witness is a person, an subject, but still proof. What the witness says, testimonies are evidence in the case (…). So normally they do not have a representative, but since 1998 there is a provision that allows the witness to appoint a proxy – he explained. He pointed out that it was Article 87 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

§ 1. A party other than the accused may appoint a representative. § 2. A person who is not a party may appoint a representative if he is required by his interests in pending proceedings. § 3. The court, and in the preparatory proceedings, the prosecutor may refuse to allow the proxy referred to participate in the proceedings, referred to in § 2, if he considers that he does not require the defense of the interests of the non -party.

Art. 87. [Udział pełnomocnika]Code of Criminal Procedure.

He admitted that “at the beginning of this provision, prosecutors did not allow us, lawyers as proxies at the witness, because it was new.” – But over the years, they have increasingly allowed, in particular in complex matters, because they discovered that the participation of the proxy calms the witness – he explained.

– For many, many years I have not been allowed to be allowed when I came to interrogation as a proxy – he said. – And among my carnivists who conduct criminal matters and often appear in this role, in economic matters, especially as the representative of the witness, for many years it has not happened for the prosecutor to refuse. This is completely unique today – he added.