Stefan W., accused of the murder of the Mayor of Gdańsk Paweł Adamowicz, laughed out loud during his trial. The man reacted in this way to the testimony of witnesses. The court decided to remove the defendant from the courtroom.
The nineteenth hearing in the case of the murder of the Mayor of Gdańsk Paweł Adamowicz is taking place in the Regional Court in Gdańsk. The accused Stefan W. was taken in from a nearby detention centre to the largest courtroom for questioning. He sat in a specially designated room behind a glass window.
At the beginning of the hearing, District Court Judge Aleksandra Kaczmarek announced that a certificate had been received from doctors indicating that the accused Stefan W. was fit to participate in the trial.
During the testimony of Zbigniew K., who sat with the accused in prison, Stefan W. was laughing out loud. Finally, during the reading of the testimony, Judge Kaczmarek admonished the accused to calm down and not to disturb the hearing. Despite the reprimand, Stefan W. did not stop laughing and the judges then decided to remove him from the courtroom for the testimony of the witnesses.
Stefan W. has consistently remained silent since the beginning of the trial – he has not given an explanation.
Stefan W. is accused of murder with direct intent as a result of motivation deserving particular condemnation, as well as the offence of forcing another person to behave in a certain way. Both offences were allegedly committed by the defendant under conditions of recidivism. The accused faces a sentence of 12 years to life imprisonment.
In the opinion of experts, he was declared insane when he entered the scene and attacked Paweł Adamowicz with a knife on 13 January 2019. This may affect the prison sentence. The court may apply extraordinary leniency to it.