22 policeman charged with shooting miners in 1981 acquitted of murder

A Katowice court yesterday judged that "it is impossible to acknowledge who was guilty of the death of the miners". During attempts to control the protests at the Silesian Wujek mine in December 1981, when the country was under martial law, nine miners were shot dead and 21 others wounded. During the trial, only 4 out of 22 former policemen were present, while others stayed at home. Judge Aleksandra Rotkiel argued that "no substantial proof was gathered to indicate which of the accused shot specific victims. The ballistic tests have not been able to prove that. It was also established that other armed police troops were present at the Wujek mine." Katarzyna Kopczak-Zagorna, a daughter of one of the victims, on exiting the court room, implored, 'Then who shot my father?" (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 1) P.W