Pre-WWII opposition leaders sentenced in famous Brest trials exonerated by Supreme Court

The verdicts passed by courts of both instances in 1932-1933 have been revoked.

The sentence reversal motion in this case was filed in 2020 by the former Commissioner for Human Rights Adam Bodnar. The present-day Polish People's Party (PSL) has called for the exoneration of its former leaders on many occasions.

"The reversal motion was well-based and deserved approval," said Judge Eugeniusz Wildowicz.

The current chairman of the PSL welcomed the news on social media. "A historic moment! After 91 years justice has been served! Wincenty Witos and all the other convicts sentenced in the Brest trials INNOCENT! I thank the Office of the Commissoiner for Human Rights for acting upon the motion initiated by PSL. The disgrace of the Brest court has been washed away. We have kept our word," he wrote on Twitter.

"The Brest trials were the most famous political trials of the Second Republic of Poland. They were held at the Warsaw Regional Court where leaders of anti-Sanation opposition of the Centrolew coalition were put on trial," Poland's Institute of National Remembrance said at its website.

The trials lasted from 26 October 1931 to 13 January 1932.

The Centrolew coalition was formed, among others, by members of Polish Socialist Party, Polish People's Party "Piast", Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie" and Peasant Party. Among the defendants was Wincenty Witos, a three-time prime minister, an activist of the peasant movement, and one of the architects of Poland's independence.

The other defendants were: Herman Lieberman, Norbert Barlicki, Adam Pragier, Stanisław Dubois, Adam Ciołkosz, Mieczysław Mastek, Władysław Kiernik, Kazimierz Bagiński, Józef Putek, and Adolf Sawicki. Sawicki was found not guilty by the court.

The IPN added the defendants had been presented with the following charge: "After mutual agreement and acting consciously, they jointly prepared an attack aimed at removing by force the members of the government that exercised power in Poland. The purpose of the attack was to replace the government by other persons, without changing the political system".

"Wincenty Witos consistently rejected the accusations against him, claiming that the aim of Polish People's Party’s 'Piast' wing was not to prepare a coup d'état, but to shape and strengthen civil society. He proved that all his political activity in Poland was driven by the Polish raison d'état," we read.

"All arrested opposition leaders were incarcerated in the Brest Fortress, and were treated as criminals. The prison sentences were announced on 13 January 1932 (only Adolf Sawicki was acquitted). The government, however, gave the accused the choice of emigrating. Five of them did so, the other five stayed on in Poland to serve the prison term instead. Wincenty Witos decided to go into exile, and left for Czechoslovakia. He returned shortly before the outbreak of World War II," the IPN said.

"Centrolew activists were persecuted until 1939. After 31 October 1939, the President of the Republic of Poland in exile, Władysław Raczkiewicz, issued a decree granting them amnesty."