Officers discharged after death of Ukrainian man in Polish police custody

Two police officers are to be discharged from service and four others have been suspended following the death of a man in custody after he was taken to a drunk tank. Prosecutors have launched a manslaughter investigation.

Video recordings show that officers used tear gas and batons and choked the man, a 25-year-old Ukrainian citizen, in the city of Wrocław. The incident, which follows another recent death in custody, has increased the spotlight on alleged police brutality.

Dmytro Nikiforenko, who arrived in Poland last year and was planning to marry this autumn, was travelling home by bus on 30 July after drinking with colleagues, reports Gazeta Wyborcza.

The bus driver alerted the emergency services after noticing the man’s unusual behaviour. According to one account, he repeatedly hit his head against a window, while another said that he fell asleep.

Finding that the man had a high blood alcohol reading, paramedics called the police to transport him to a drunk tank. According to police officers, his “very aggressive” conduct meant that he had to be forcibly restrained using incapacitating holds and handcuffs as well as tear gas.

The officers’ account could not be verified as their body cameras were turned off. However, CCTV footage obtained by Gazeta Wyborcza shows that Nikiforenko was not aggressive when led out of the police car but that officers and employees at the drunk tank acted violently.

After his handcuffs were removed, Nikiforenko tried to get up, but was brought to the ground by four people, reports the newspaper. One pressed his head against the floor with a knee, and two more officers entered and joined in.

Later, after the man had been strapped to a bed in a cell, at one point nine officers sat on him. He was reportedly punched, beaten with a baton and choked, even when he stopped reacting at all.

The recording shows that police officers began cardiac massage and called an ambulance after noticing that Nikiforenko was unresponsive. Paramedics attempted to revive him, but were not successful. Initial reports attribute the death to “violent choking”, according to Radio Zet.

Following media accounts of the death, police commenced a discharge procedure against two officers for “unlawful use of coercive measures, physical force and batons,” reports Radio Zet, citing Wrocław police spokesman Kamil Rynkiewicz. Four other officers have been suspended for not turning their cameras on.

The district prosecutor’s office has opened a manslaughter investigation, but no charges have yet been made, pending the results of the post-mortem.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry said that it had not been aware of the CCTV recording, and promised to work with its Polish counterpart to ensure that the case is investigated “objectively and without prejudice”.

Politicians from The Left (Lewica), the second largest opposition party, have demanded that national police headquarters conduct “an urgent audit” of the Wrocław police station.

“We don’t want another situation like the one after the killing of Igor Stachowiak, with the case being swept under the carpet,” said MP Agnieszka Dziemianowicz. “We don’t want only independent media to follow this story.”

Stachowiak died in Wrocław in 2016 after he was repeatedly tasered by officers on the floor of a police station bathroom. The incident only came fully to light after broadcaster TVN obtained footage, and the officers involved were eventually sentenced to prison.

Last month, violent protests took place outside local police headquarters in the town of Lubin following the death of a 34-year-old man whom police had used force against. Discrepancies emerged in accounts of when and how he died, and prosecutors have launched an investigation into possible abuse of powers by officers as well as manslaughter.

Both incidents have added to a growing claims of police brutality. Last year, police were accused of using excessive force against members of the press covering the annual Independence Day march in Warsaw as well as at protests in response to Poland’s near-total ban on abortion.

The police have, however, defended their actions at those events as a necessary response to “hooligan acts”. They received backing from the interior minister, who noted “aggressive attacks on police”, and the president, who said that the police have “behaved “extremely professionally”.

Main image credit: Lukasz Giza / Agencja Gazeta

Agnieszka Wądołowska

Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna