The crime of unlawful deprivation of liberty in the polish penal code (article 189)

Abstract

In the Penal Code of 1932, unlawful deprivation of liberty was included in Article 248, which, in its basic type, coincided with the current wording of Article 189 §1 of the currently applicable Polish Penal Code of 1997 ("Whoever deprives a person of liberty shall be punished by imprisonment for up to 5 years"). Article 248 §2 provided for four aggravating circumstances: a/ length of unlawful deprivation of liberty (exceeding 14 days); b/ special torment; c/ other particularly grave cases; d/ surrender of a person to the power of a foreign state. It should also be noted that Article 288 of the Penal Code of 1932 penalised the conduct of an official who, through negligence in office, deprived a person of liberty (for which a sentence of imprisonment for up to 3 years was provided). The Penal Code of 1969 regulated unlawful deprivation of liberty in Article 165.