Courts: Jan K. Sentenced to 10 Years in Jail Over Murder of Grzegorz Szymanek

Banska Bystrica, May 26 (TASR) - The Banska Bystrica District Court on Thursday sentenced businessman and former mobster Jan K. [name abbreviated due to legal reasons] to ten years in jail over the 1990s murder of Polish enterpreneur Grzegorz Szymanek, TASR learnt on the same day. The District Court had to hear the case again, as the Regional Court annulled the verdict in 2021 and returned the case to the lower-level court. The decision is not yet final. Affluent Polish fraudster Szymanek was kidnapped in 1997 by mobsters led by Mikulas "Miki" Cernak on behalf of individuals from Poland, who sought ransom money. Szymanek was held captive in Slovakia and moved between various locations. The Polish group failed to pay for the kidnapping, however, and when the police began to search for Szymanek, the decision was taken to liquidate the man physically. Spending his final days as a captive in a spartan cabin without electricity, in the woods near the village of Polomka (Banska Bystrica region), Szymanek was finally brought to a hole dug in the ground, which was to serve as his makeshift grave. The crime boss inserted a pistol into Szymanek's mouth, told him: "see you in hell!" and pressed the trigger. Subsequently, Jan K. allegedly fired off a shot into Szymanek's chest, which Jan K. denies. Jan K., now a businessman, denies any involvement in the group's crimes. Mikulas Cernak is already serving a life sentence, as he was convicted in 2009 for six murders and the ordering of a seventh murder. In 2020, he confessed to 16 crimes, out of which 14 were murders. mf