On Wednesday in Rzeszów, began a trial in the case of murder of 17-year-old Iwona Cygan that was committed 20 years ago. Seventeen accused have been sat in the dock, including 14 retired, former police officers.
Paweł K. is charged with a murder with extreme cruelty, while his father, Józef K. stands as an accomplice. Among the accused is Renata G.-D., a friend of the victim who is said to had been obstructing justice and give false statements.
By the order of the court, the trial will mostly be conducted in camera. However, the court did allow media presence during the open part, with a restriction forbidding them revealing testimonies of the witnesses and statements of the accused. It’s also forbidden to reveal identities and images of witnesses and accused.
With regards to a large number of the accused, 16 of which were transported from custody, the trial is being held in the biggest chamber of Rzeszów Regional Court, even though it’s conducted by the District Court, represented by five people: two professional judges and three jurors.
The accused were sat inside a specially separated space behind a wall of glass and guarded by police officers.
Also present were the father and two sisters of the victim who act as auxiliary prosecutors.
The prosecutor commenced the trial by reading out the indictment.
Iwona Cygan was killed at night between 13 and 14 of August 1998. The body was found the next day, by the a passerby, on the bank of Vistula river in Łęka Szczuczyńska. Post-mortem revealed that the girl had been strangled and the perpetrators staged a sexual assault.
Back in the years, the investigation has been discontinued due to failure of identifying the perpetrator. It has been reopened recently by the State Prosecutor’s Regional Department in Kraków in cooperation with a special police group tracking old, unsolved cases - "Archiwum X" of the Regional Police Headquarters in Kraków. The first detentions of suspects started after the investigators had broken a conspiracy of silence in December 2016.
By far, judging on the collected evidence, the police and prosecutor ascertained that there is a direct link between the killing of Iwona Cygan and vanishing and murder of another local resident. The man is said to had been telling that he knew the perpetrator, right after a criminal TV programme dedicated to the murder of Iwona Cygan was aired in January 1999. The programme informed about a prize that was waiting for any information regarding the case. On the next day, the man disappeared. His body was found a few months later in the Vistula river, a dozen or so kilometers from Łąka Szczuczyńska.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24, PAP