Grzegorz Przemyk

Grzegorz Przemyk (17 May 1964 – 14 May 1983) was an aspiring Polish poet from Warsaw, who was murdered by members of the Communist police force, the Milicja Obywatelska (Citizens' Militia). His killing was one of many such politically motivated murders perpetrated against democratic opposition by the Communist regime of Poland during the martial law period.

Beating and death

Przemyk's mother, Barbara Sadowska, a poet and a member of the Workers' Defence Committee, was frequently arrested and questioned by the Polish Secret Service (''Służba Bezpieczeństwa'', SB) for her activities in the opposition movement. On several occasions officers questioning her made various threats, including suggestions that her only son, Grzegorz, might be hurt in an accident. The last time she was questioned before the incident was at the end of April 1983.

12 May 1983 was the day of Grzegorz's graduation from high school, as well as the anniversary of death of Józef Piłsudski, a statesman and leader of the Second Polish Republic, considered a class enemy by the communist authorities. Celebration of this date was illegal in Poland and always a cause for concern by the police and the SB.

Around 3 pm, Grzegorz Przemyk and his friends, Cezary Filozof, , Igor Bieliński, and Kuba Kotański, left together to celebrate their graduation at Castle Square in Warsaw's Old Town. There at around 5 pm, Filozof and Przemyk were stopped by the policeman Ireneusz Kościuk, who demanded their identity documents. As they dined, Kościuk called for a police car and forced them inside while beating them with a rubber baton. Kuba and Piotr, who witnessed the events from distance, separated. Piotr ran home to notify Przemyk's mother, and Kotański followed the car to a nearby police station. Standing outside, he heard Przemyk howling in pain as he was being beaten. Filozof was with Przemyk the whole time and witnessed two policemen, Kościuk and Krzysztof Dalmata, beating him with a baton. Arkadiusz Denkiewicz, who was the duty officer at the time, came to the room and complained about the noise, instructing them to beat Przemyk more quietly, preferably in the stomach. Dalmata then held Przemyk's arms behind his back, while Bogusław Bielec struck him in the stomach with his elbow until Przemyk fell unconscious.

The policemen called an ambulance, reporting that a "drug-addict" required treatment at psychiatric hospital. The driver, Michał Wysocki, could see that Przemyk was not drugged, but crouching, holding his stomach, and unable to walk. Together with the paramedic Jacek Szyzdek, they moved him into the ambulance and transported him to a hospital on Hoża Street. By that time, Filozof had arrived at the hospital on foot from the police station. The psychiatrist Paweł Willmann then referred the barely conscious Przemyk to a psychiatric hospital for further investigation, explaining that a gastric lavage would be performed and he would "soon get better." Przemyk's mother arrived and insisted on taking him home, fearing abuse known to be typical at the psychiatric facilities at that time. At home, Przemyk, feeling better, relayed how he was beaten by the policemen, while an officer advised that they "beat him in the stomach to leave no traces".

On 13 May, Przemyk again started feeling poorly and was seen by two doctors. The second one suspected liver injury and called for immediate transport to Solec hospital for surgery. At 11 pm, Przemyk was still conscious and explained to the surgeon he had been "beaten in the stomach until he lost consciousness" and that it happened at a police station. He was operated on during the night, only to confirm severe and irreversible gastrointestinal perforation. Przemyk died in an intensive care unit at 1 pm on 14 May. The news about his death quickly spread, and by the evening Sadowska's house was already guarded by a number of policemen, preventing friends arriving with condolences from entering.

On 15 May, the information reached the underground and international media (BBC
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