It was an execution of a minister. Gangster scores straight from Poland

Gangster settlements in the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century were, unfortunately, nothing extraordinary in Polish reality. In December 1999, Andrzej Kolikowski, known as “Pershing”, the head of the Pruszków mafia, was shot in a parking lot in Zakopane.

Former Chief of Police Marek Papala was also murdered, shot in front of his house in June 1998. Among the alleged principals of the policeman’s murder was Jeremiasz Barański, known as “Mutton”. Although no evidence was found to support this hypothesis. And the murder of Papala itself is still one of the greatest, not fully explained mysteries of the Polish justice system.

“Baranina”, as the leader of the criminal group, was behind the murder of Jacek Dębski. The former minister of sports was shot dead in 2001, on the night of April 11-12.

Exactly 25 years have passed since those tragic events.

Death of Jacek Dębski. Was the former minister a victim of gangster violence?

Barański, of course, pleaded not guilty, suggesting that Dębski’s murder was political in nature. Ultimately, however, “Baranina” (the client) and Tadeusz Maziuk alias “Sasha” (the perpetrator of the murder) were detained and arrested.

Both of them committed suicide in their cells shortly thereafter, Barański in Austria – where he worked on a daily basis – and Maziuk in Poland.

Although almost 25 years have passed since the brutal murder, that night in Warsaw still arouses emotions. As hindsight and the emerging factual information showed, Dębski was dragged out of the restaurant… to be executed. The former minister of sports left the restaurant in the company of Halina Galińska – “Inka”, involved in the whole case. Who was sentenced to eight years (for complicity in Dębski’s murder) and has already served her sentence.

Dębski allegedly demanded the return of a large amount of money from “Baranina”, but the gangster did not like this and hence the sentence that was executed on the politician. A politician, let me add, who was a very famous figure in the country. Not only because of his position as the head of the Office of Physical Culture and Tourism, which was the Minister of Sport in Jerzy Buzek’s government in 1997-2000. Dębski had his own strong opinions, an additional vague aura related to his activities as an entrepreneur, and he was capable of getting into conflicts.

One of them was the declaration of a “war” on the Polish Football Association, under the leadership of the late Marian Dziurowicz. The minister decided to suspend the authorities of the football federation, which could even result in the exclusion of Polish teams from international competitions.

Dębski ceased to be the Minister of Sports in February 2000, after being dismissed by Prime Minister Buzek. Reason? A high-profile interview for “Gazeta Wyborcza”, in which Dębski suggested the scandalous persuasion of persuading one of the important AWS politicians to find “hacks” and discrediting his predecessors in the position of UKFiT (Ministry of Sport).

One of his predecessors in the ministry (then office) was… Aleksander Kwaśniewski.

Shortly thereafter, Dębski was definitively excluded from the Solidarity Electoral Action Social Movement party.

The place where fatal shots were fired at Dębski was Wał Miedzeszyński in Warsaw. Heading towards the Poniatowski Bridge with “Inka”, the former politician encountered “Sasza”. He took Dębski’s life.

Dębski died in hospital 5 hours after being shot.

Interestingly, the script for the film “The Insulator” was created based on the tragic story from April 2001. A political thriller produced in 2011.