The prosecutor's office is demanding suspended sentences of seven months to six years of absolute imprisonment for the defendants in the death of a 25-year-old Ukrainian citizen in the Wrocław Center for Assistance to Intoxicated Persons. The defendants in this case include four former policemen, three caregivers, a doctor and the center's shift manager.
Closing arguments began on Friday in the case of 25-year-old Dmytro N., a Ukrainian citizen, who died in a sobering-up center in July 2021. Judge Marcin Myczkowski closed the court proceedings.
Prosecutor Hubert Kołtuniak from the District Prosecutor's Office in Szczecin is demanding the strictest penalties for three former policemen, one of the guardians and a doctor – from one to six years as a strict prisoner and from three to nine years a ban on working in the police and as a guardian and doctor in a sobering-up center. For the remaining defendants, the prosecutor's office wants suspended sentences of seven months to one year. All defendants – as the prosecutor requests – should also jointly pay compensation to the family of the deceased 25-year-old Dmytro N. in the amount of PLN 200,000. zloty.
In his closing speech, the prosecutor described in detail the events of July 2021, as a result of which – as the prosecution emphasizes – the 25-year-old man died. “The surveillance footage from the sobering-up center shows how the injured party initially struggled to free himself, and then he actually fought for his life, for every breath, while being crushed by five people,” said the prosecutor.
He added that Dmytro N. was “a victim deliberately attacked, not an attacker.” “Each of the five defendants who were accused of beating and abusing Dmytro N. fulfilled some of the elements constituting the description of the prohibited act, and their sum constituted the full execution of the crime, the consequence of which was the death of the injured party,” the prosecutor said.
On Friday, the prosecutor and additional prosecutors concluded their closing arguments. The defense lawyers' speeches will begin on May 23.
During the previous April hearing, Judge Myczkowski resumed the proceedings and informed that the court was considering changing the classification of the act in relation to five defendants from assault resulting in death to unintentional manslaughter. – This is a proposal to classify an act punishable by a much lesser prison sentence – prosecutor Kołtuniak told journalists then. The court will decide on the proposed change when announcing its judgment in the case.
Earlier, he had been sitting quietly on the bus for several hours
Footage from surveillance cameras of a Wrocław bus TVN24
The events described in the indictment took place on July 30, 2021. The police were notified by ambulance rescuers called to intervene at an MPK stop in Wrocław. According to the services, the drunk man was aggressive. There were no indications that he would have to go to hospital, so the officers took him to a sobering-up center, where 25-year-old Dmytro N. died. The Ukrainian citizen was allegedly beaten, strangled, and used a baton and gas.
According to the defendants' testimony, the 25-year-old man was aggressive, attacked police officers and guardians, and did not obey orders. He also bit the rescuer's finger. That's why they tried to fasten it in the so-called belts on the bed, but during these activities a sudden cardiac arrest occurred and despite resuscitation, the Ukrainian died – according to the testimony given during the investigation and maintained by the defendants during the trial.
What were they accused of?
The investigation into this case was ultimately led by the District Prosecutor's Office in Szczecin. According to the prosecutor's office, “three police officers and two guardians – paramedics in the room of the Wrocław Center for Assistance to Intoxicated Persons in Wrocław exceeded their powers in the use of direct coercive measures.” According to investigators, they acted together and in concert.
“They took part in a beating and physically abused the legally deprived of his liberty of the injured party, against whom, after taking him in and restraining him with belts, they used physical violence. This involved, among others, pressing the head, upper part of the body and legs of the injured party against the bed mattress, pressing knee of the upper body and lower part of the injured person's back, sitting on the lying injured person and pressing him with his whole weight to the mattress, hitting him with the hand and fist in the area of the loin and head or shoulder girdle, pressing the neck of the injured person with his hands, beating him with a tonfa baton in the area of the lower back” – the Szczecin prosecutor's office stated in the indictment.
Wrocław Center for Assistance for Intoxicated PersonsTVN24 Wrocław
According to the prosecutor's office, this made it difficult for the victim to breathe freely and, as a result, led to his death as a result of violent suffocation.
Another policeman, as a witness to the event, “did not take any action to prevent physical violence against the injured party.” The doctor who was on duty at the center on July 30, 2021 “failed to exercise proper supervision over the injured party and did not decide to stop the use of direct coercion against him by police officers and guardians, which unintentionally caused his death as a result of violent suffocation.”
In turn, two employees of the center – the person performing the duties of the custodian of the depository and the shift manager, when the paramedics considered the rescue activities to be ineffective, “incited them to obstruct the criminal proceedings related to the unintentional causing of the death of the injured person, as well as to certify untruths in the order card for the departure of the medical rescue team and a medical emergency card,” the prosecutor's office said.
Attempts to cover up the matter
The women were to persuade the rescuers to take the injured person's body to the ambulance and confirm the death only in the ambulance or after being transported to the emergency room or hospital emergency department, “and also to confirm untruths in the departure order card and the medical emergency activities card in the part regarding the description of the actions taken and the time of withdrawal from medical rescue activities, as well as the time of death.
Former police officers and rescuers face a penalty of one to 10 years in prison. The others range from three months to five years.
Main photo source: monitoring