Faulty law clogs courts and lets mafia off the hook

Around 1,500 trials of organized crime groups have been on hold since July, and due to the delay it is possible that they will have to be restarted or dismissed altogether. This means that some of the 10,000 accused would escape conviction. The delay stems from confusion over the March 2007 act prepared by the then Minister of Justice, Zbigniew Ziobro, according to which organized crime trials were to be held at district courts instead of at the local level. However, the act did not include the standard clause that cases begun at the local level should be finished there. "'Local' judges have used the faulty law to get rid of difficult cases," said a chairman of the criminal branch of one court district. Though an amendment to the act was passed in August, half of the cases are still in district courts. (Puls Biznesu p. 4) K.K.