Inquisitorial nature of the proceedings before the Military District Court in Rzeszow in cases of an attempt to change the political system
Inquisitorial nature of the proceedings before the Military District Court in Rzeszow in cases of an attempt to change the political system

Summary/Abstract: In criminal proceedings which were carried out in the 40’s of the XX century in the cases of crimes of high treason involving an attempt to change the political system or to abolish the organs of state by force, one can notice similarities to the inquisitorial trial. Criminal proceedings in those cases were conducted in order to obtain an admission of guilt of the accused. Having obtained this evidence, there was not any attempt to make use of all available evidence, which could help to clarify all the circumstances of the case. To achieve this purpose, torture of the accused was permitted during the investigation. The defendants also had a limited right to defence in terms of making contacts with a defence counsel and also the court did not taking into account the submitted evidence. Consequently, it can be concluded that the Military District Court in Rzeszow did not seek to establish the objective truth in the cases in which people were accused of committing the crimes specified in article 86 of the Penal Code of the Polish Army, but to convict the accused. Criminal proceedings were therefore carried out with violation of the principle of the presumption of innocence of the accused and rejected efforts to establish the objective truth.

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