This article examines the facts and evidence that constituted the grounds for declaring null and void the criminal convictions issued against Prof. Antoni Słomkowski, the first post-war Rector of the Catholic University of Lublin. By its decision of 28 March 2018, the Regional Court in Warsaw granted the motion filed by the investigative division of the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw and restored the good name of an individual who had been unjustly convicted. The court thereby removed from legal circulation the judicial rulings issued in 1953. Recent research on judicial repression employed in Poland between 1944 and 1989 sheds new light on this case. It provides a basis for concluding that the historical proceedings were adjudicated by courts subordinated to political authorities. This conclusion is supported by evidence concerning the functioning, within the structure of the ordinary judiciary between 1950 and 1954, of so-called „secret sections”. Drawing on archival materials, the article identifies violations of the rule of law committed by prosecutorial authorities and courts in the context of clandestine adjudication of political cases. These findings offer new arguments in support of the legitimacy of the rehabilitation, understood as the restoration of Prof. Antoni Słomkowski to the status of a person legally innocent.
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.