CONFIDENTIAL
POLAND
Report by Eastern European and Soviet Department
Right No.
(i) No cases are currently known of
anyone imprisoned without trial. According to Article 87 of the State Constitution a detention period may not exceed 48 hours without the issue of a warrant for arrest. It is doubtful that, in practice, an enforceable right to compensation exists for victims of unlawful arrest or detention.
(ii) 67 workers have complained offici-
ally of having undergone police beatings after detention for par- ticipating in the June disturbances. Torture, however, is not known to be systematically employed.
(iii) Slavery does not exist.
Rating suggested by Department
(iv) Although Article 83 of the Constitution
guarantees this freedom, in practice it is legally impossible to propagate views considered harmful to the State under Articles 270-288 of the Criminal Code.
(v) According to Articles 50 and 62 of the
Constitution judges are appointed and removed by the highest state authority, the Council of State, are independent and subject only to the law. The general assumption, however, is that they are either Party members or amenable to pres- sure and are not independent in the strict sense of the word.
(vi) Article 25 of the Constitution describes
trades unions, i.a. as being "involved in the construction of a socialist society" while a recent Trades Union congress was said to be "a demonstration of the ideo- logical and political bonds linking the movement with the PZPR (Communist Party)". All workers are urged to join trade unions but unable to form any not sanctioned by the State.
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CONFIDENTIAL
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