Grotesque court decisions in trial of teenage girls accused of killing schoolmate

The court has decided that two eighteen-year-old girls, Ewa and Renata, who killed their friend, Agnieszka, in January 1997, are to pay a sum of zl.28,974 to her parents. The girl was stabbed (70 times) to death in a park in Wroclaw because her two schoolmates "did not like her," as they later said. They will spend another three years at a juvenile reform institution before they are allowed to leave. The victim's parents claimed zl.50,000 in damages and zl.7,000 for the cost of the grave they had built. However, the court decided to reduce the amount of compensation by half. Furthermore, it stated that the cost of the grave was too high and thus it could not sanction a refund for what it considers a luxury, since it exceeded the average price of zl.3,900. Additionally, according to the court decision, the victim's parents are supposed to bear the costs of remuneration for the court-appointed attorney who defended their daughter's murderers. The court also ruled that the compensation must be paid by the girls themselves, since there was no evidence that their parents were responsible because of the girls' poor up-bringing. The victim's parents are going to file an appeal. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p.1) M. S.-C.