Jarosław Ziętara's Case. Adam Bodnar to Meet with Journalists

Jarosław Ziętara was born in Bydgoszcz in 1968. He graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He first worked in academic radio, later he collaborated with “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Kurier Codzienny”, the weekly “Wprost” and “Gazeta Poznańska”. He dealt with the subject of the so-called Poznań grey zone. For this reason – according to the prosecutor's office – he was supposedly kidnapped and murdered.

On September 1, 1992, Jarosław Ziętara left his apartment at Kolejowa Street 49 in Poznań. He was only a few blocks from the headquarters of “Gazeta Poznańska”, but he never made it there. In 1999, he was declared dead. Thanks to this, his family was able to place a symbolic plaque at the Bydgoszcz cemetery. The journalist's body has not been found to this day.

The meeting with journalists and social organizations announced for Friday is the reaction of the Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar to the appeal of the Polish Media Council to launch an investigation into the murder of a Poznań journalist.

On the 32nd anniversary of Ziętara's disappearance, September 1, Adam Bodnar wrote on platform X that “the case of possible kidnapping and murder has never been comprehensively explained.”

Referring in the entry to the appeal of the Polish Media Council, he invited interested media and social organizations to a meeting regarding the current status of Ziętara's case. He also informed that the presence at the meeting, scheduled for Friday, September 13, was confirmed by the case officer – prosecutor Piotr Kosmaty.

At the end of August, the Polish Media Council appealed to the head of the Ministry of Justice, Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar, to launch an investigation into the murder of Ziętara.

“In a state of law, there can be no consent to the absence of punishment for a crime. Especially for a crime that is in its essence an attack on the foundations of a democratic state. The murder of a journalist to prevent him from publishing materials is the most drastic form of censorship,” the Council stressed in its appeal.

“We request that the investigation, discontinued in 2019, into the participation in the kidnapping and murder of journalist Jarosław Ziętara in 1992 of people who were not charged in other threads be resumed. In particular, that the investigation also cover people repeatedly mentioned by witnesses during the trials,” the appeal reads.

The Polish Media Council also appealed to Bodnar to ask the secret services to provide the prosecutor's office with archival files of cases conducted in 1991-1992 by the Office for State Protection. This concerns files of cases concerning people and companies that were the subject of Ziętara's journalistic investigation and were probably murdered for that reason.

The Polish Media Council appreciated that the prosecutor's office filed a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court this year against the verdict acquitting Aleksander G. of inciting the murder of Ziętara. “Following this, the Polish state should also take all other actions to reveal all those responsible for the journalist's murder and bring them to justice,” the appeal emphasized.

Appeal of the Polish Media Council: “In a state of law there can be no consent to the absence of punishment for a crime”

In 2022, the District Court in Poznań acquitted former senator Aleksander G., accused of inciting the murder of Ziętara. In January 2024, this ruling was upheld by the court of appeal. In May 2024, the prosecutor's office filed a motion to the Supreme Court to have this ruling annulled.

In October 2022, in another trial, the District Court in Poznań acquitted Mirosław R., alias Ryba, and Dariusz L., alias Lal, accused of kidnapping, deprivation of liberty and aiding and abetting the murder of Ziętara. The verdict is not final, the appeal has not yet been heard.

In 2016, on the tenement house at Kolejowa Street 49 in Poznań, where Ziętara lived and where he was last seen, a plaque was unveiled with the reporter's image and the inscription: “Jarosław Ziętara lived in this house. Kidnapped on September 1, 1992. He died because he was a journalist”. The initiative to commemorate the journalist in this way was taken by the Jarosław Ziętara Social Committee from Poznań.

In 2022, by decision of the President of the Republic of Poland, Jarosław Ziętara was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for outstanding services to the development of independent journalism. In the same year, another plaque dedicated to Zientara was unveiled – in the building of the Faculty of Political Science and Journalism at Adam Mickiewicz University. For two years, Jarosław Ziętara has also been the patron of the award for investigative journalism granted by Press Club Polska.