Jolanta Brzeska’s case discontinued. The prosecutor’s office recalled the witness’s shocking testimony
In 2011, in the Powsin Culture Park in Warsaw, the body of Jolanta Brzeska, an activist who became a symbol of the fight to defend tenants, was found. The Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Gdańsk announced on Monday that the investigation into her sudden death was discontinued.
The investigation concerned “pouring flammable liquid on her and then setting her on fire,” wrote the press release from Gdańsk. “The basis for discontinuing the investigation is the lack of data sufficient to justify the suspicion of committing a prohibited act,” we read.
The tragic death of Brzeska. She became an icon of the fight for tenants’ rights
The investigation into the activist’s death, which occurred virtually overnight, was initiated at the beginning of March 2011 by the Prosecutor of the Warsaw-Mokotów District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw. More than a year later, in the first half of May, it was taken over by the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw. Then, less than a year later – in April – they were discontinued “due to the failure to detect the perpetrator of the murder,” we read.
In September 2016, by decision of the Prosecutor of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, the proceedings were continued (they were entrusted to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Gdańsk). As investigators remind us, three possibilities were taken into account in this case: suicide, murder and an accident.
“According to the prosecutor, none of the above-mentioned investigative versions can be clearly, unquestionably confirmed or excluded. All of them are probabilistically credible, and at the current stage of the proceedings, full and complete evidence has been collected, enabling a final substantive decision to be issued. Having exhausted the initiative to take evidence, the prosecutor ordered the prosecutor to issue a decision to discontinue the investigation,” says prosecutor Mariusz Marciniak (spokesman of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Gdańsk).
Shocking witness testimony. “She started making dance-like gestures.”
Nearly 300 witnesses were interviewed in this case (some of them several times or with the participation of an expert psychologist). Numerous pieces of evidence were secured and examined and analyzed, sometimes even several times. “However, all this did not allow us to establish the facts, which undoubtedly support the acceptance of one of the versions of the event. Since the proceedings were conducted on suspicion of committing the crime of murder, the Prosecutor assumed in the decision to discontinue the investigation that there was no data sufficient to justify the suspicion of murdering Jolanta Brzeska by setting her on fire,” we read.
The prosecutor’s office also cites the testimony of one (almost) eyewitness who allegedly saw and fragmentarily heard a dialogue between a woman and a man at the scene of the incident. At one point, however, “the conversation turned into an argument after the woman expected the man to fulfill some promise.” “The witness observed that during the conversation the woman began to make gestures resembling dancing. After a while, the man, whose identity was not established, went towards the exit from the forest, and the woman stayed near the birch alley. Then, near the place where the interlocutors had previously stood, the witness noticed fire. Later he learned that a woman had burned herself in this place, in the birch alley,” we read.
Further, investigators from Gdańsk inform that “the findings indicating that the injured party was active in the Warsaw Tenants’ Association do not provide grounds to assume that Brzeska was the victim of murder for this reason, for example as a result of a conflict with people involved in the reprivatization of premises in Warsaw.” . The evidence is also not sufficient to talk about an accident or suicide.
Brzeska participated in the protests and established an association. She helped tenants for whom her death was a shock
Brzeska was a symbol of the fight against the so-called wild reprivatization in Warsaw. In 2006, a decision was issued according to which the entire tenement house (including Brzeska’s apartment) became the property of the heirs of the pre-war owners. The heirs’ representative unilaterally terminated the accommodation lease agreement and drastically increased the rent. Everyone who lived in the property began to face eviction.
In 2007, the activist launched the Warsaw Tenants Association. She participated in numerous protests against the implementation of eviction judgments, provided legal advice to those threatened with eviction, and participated in the meetings of the Warsaw City Council, where she demanded the protection of tenants’ rights.
