On October 6, 2025 the Court of Appeal in Wrocław handed down a judgment finding 72-year-old poultry farm owner Alicja Ś., who for 23 years exploited the labor of a foreigner who had illegally entered Poland, guilty of the crime of human trafficking (punishable by 3 to 20 years’ imprisonment. Earlier, the Legnica court had ruled that Ś. was guilty only of entrusting him with work under conditions of particular exploitation).

– The court assessed—as the prosecutor had previously done—that the defendant kept the victim at the farm so that he would perform forced labor, for up to several dozen hours a day and without pay – explains Liliana Łukasiewicz, press spokesperson for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Legnica. – This work humiliated him, and violence and unlawful threats were used while he was being kept there. The defendant took advantage of the victim’s critical situation and state of helplessness.

The second-instance court changed the challenged sentence (one year and six months’ imprisonment) and imposed a far harsher penalty: four years and six months’ imprisonment. Prosecutor: – The court upheld the fine of 300 daily rates of PLN 50 each and ordered the defendant, instead of the PLN 15,000 compensation payment, to pay PLN 300,000 toward partially repairing the damage and PLN 500,000 in partial compensation for the harm caused by the offense attributed to the defendant.

Case history

The indictment in this case was submitted to the District Court in Legnica in June 2021. The prosecutor initially charged the Ś. couple. After the death of the defendant, the proceedings continued only against Alicja Ś.

On June 24, 2024, the District Court in Legnica—as the court of first instance—found the above-mentioned defendant guilty only of the offense under Article 10(1) and (3) of the Act of June 15, 2012, on the consequences of entrusting work to foreigners staying in violation of the law on the territory of the Republic of Poland.

In September 2024, the prosecutor filed an appeal in the case, disagreeing with the legal interpretation of the facts that allowed the court to find that the crime of human trafficking had not been committed in this case.

Spokesperson:

The concept of “human trafficking,” applicable in the Polish legal system until September 8, 2010, cannot be equated with civil-law transactions. According to the statutory definition of human trafficking set out in Article 115 § 22(5) of the Criminal Code, human trafficking includes, among other things, keeping or receiving a person by taking advantage of their critical situation or state of helplessness, for the purpose of exploiting them, even with their consent, particularly in forced labor or services, begging, slavery, or other forms of exploitation that humiliate human dignity. Therefore, the prosecutor sought to change the challenged judgment.

The appellate court agreed with the prosecutor’s position.

The judgment is final.