14 January 2026  the Regional Court in Jelenia Góra amended the earlier judgment of the District Court in Bolesławiec and acquitted Mirosław Starzyk of the charge under Article 234 of the Criminal Code, namely false accusation.

What was it about?

The dispute began in 2019, when old buildings on private property on Staroszkolna Street began to be demolished for a planned commercial development. During World War II, a forced-labor facility operated on the site. Prisoners from the Gross-Rosen concentration camp subcamp (the so-called Bunzlau I) were held there. The second facility – Bunzlau II – was located on Orla Street (the Concordia buildings).

Mirosław Starzyk believed that the site on Staroszkolna Street should be treated as a special place because of its history. He wrote about the matter to various institutions, including the mayor of Bolesławiec.

The mayor’s role

Mayor Piotr Roman replied that the city did not own the plot on Staroszkolna Street and was not carrying out an investment there. He also pointed out that, according to available historical sources, the site had been a forced-labor camp, but not a mass-extermination site.

Starzyk was nevertheless convinced that the mayor should take action to stop the demolition. In 2020, he filed a private indictment against him, accusing him, among other things, of failing to respond and of acts that harmed the memory of the victims.

It was precisely for this – filing such an indictment – that Starzyk was later himself accused of falsely accusing the mayor.

What did the court find?

The Regional Court stressed that in order to convict someone of false accusation, it must be shown that they knowingly told a lie. In this case, the court found, there was no evidence of that.

Judge Tomasz Skowron found that Starzyk was convinced that his claims were justified and was acting to defend what he perceived as historical memory. The court therefore amended the first-instance judgment and acquitted the defendant.

The conduct of the defendant Mirosław Starzyk even before the private indictment against Piotr Roman was filed, as well as his attitude during the proceedings in question (which lasted many years), shows that it was not the defendant’s intention to create a false impression, distort reality, or create the false belief that Piotr Roman, the mayor of Bolesławiec, had committed a crime by taking action or failing to act in a situation where this had not actually occurred. Through his conduct, he sought to prevent the demolition of the buildings of the former Gross Rosen concentration camp subcamp located in Bolesławiec on Staroszkolna and Orla streets, which Piotr Roman, as Mayor of the City of Bolesławiec, did not in fact prevent. In his view, the Mayor of the City of Bolesławiec should and could have taken action to halt the demolition work on the plots in question, where Gross Rosen concentration camp subcamps had been located during World War II.

excerpt from the reasons for the judgment of the Regional Court in Jelenia Góra

Who will pay the costs?

The costs of the proceedings will be borne by the State Treasury. The mayor, as an auxiliary prosecutor, was exempted from the fee for the second instance, and the court-appointed defense lawyer’s remuneration will be covered by the state.

The judgment was delivered on 14 January 2026 and brings to an end a high-profile dispute that had lasted several years in the city.