On Saturday, the bodies of two men were discovered in a house in Rybnik. The deceased were 68 and 41 years old. The cause of their deaths is not yet known. Unofficial reports suggest that the older man was a former head of the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office in Katowice.
No visible injuries were found on the bodies. An autopsy is expected to determine the cause of death.
The information about the discovery was confirmed to PAP by junior aspirant Szymon Muras from the Municipal Police Headquarters in Rybnik.
“This incident occurred on March 7. Shortly before 1:00 p.m., we received a report that the bodies of two men aged 68 and 41 had been found on a property on Platanowa Street. A prosecutor was present at the scene and ordered an autopsy,” the officer said.
The police officer declined to confirm that the victims were Jerzy H. and his son. However, PAP obtained this information from two other sources within the police and the prosecutor’s office.
“The key issue will be the autopsy, which will be conducted and will determine the further direction of the proceedings. Histopathological and toxicological examinations will most likely also be ordered. This should provide an answer as to the cause of death of both individuals,” Agnieszka Bukowska, spokeswoman for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Gliwice, told PAP.
Corruption Scandal
Jerzy H. became the head of the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office in Katowice in 1993. His career ended after a publication by the weekly magazine Newsweek, which reported in 2002 that he was spending more than he earned, lived in a luxury villa, and drove an expensive car. At the time, Justice Minister Barbara Piwnik referred the matter to the prosecutor’s office in Kraków for investigation.
The former appellate prosecutor was charged with extorting 1.7 million złoty and spent nearly three years in pre-trial detention. According to the findings of the investigation, between 1993 and 2002 he invited company executives to meetings where he described the difficult situation of the prosecutor’s office, pointing to its needs and shortages, such as office equipment.
In reality, no equipment was purchased and the money went into the accused’s pocket. According to prosecutors and the court, 65 companies and individuals were defrauded in this way, with around 300 instances of money being handed over.
In March 2013, Jerzy H. was finally sentenced to eight years in prison. In addition to extortion and document forgery, he was also charged with obstructing proceedings by inciting false testimony. Those offenses, however, became time-barred, and the court discontinued the proceedings in that regard.
Jerzy H. did not admit guilt. During lengthy explanations before the court, he stated, among other things, that he treated the appellate prosecutor’s office as the work of his life and that “defrauding it would be like stealing from one’s own family.”