General Marian Zacharski regains his pension on the basis of the verdict issued by the Regional Court in Warsaw

On 1 April 2022, the Regional Court in Warsaw, 13th Labour and Social Insurance Division, passed a judgment restoring General Marian Zacharski’s right to a pension in the amount prior to its reduction by the Director of the Pension Fund of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration under the Act on Pension Benefits of Former Communist Security Service Personnel .

The Regional Court in Warsaw stated unambiguously that the service of General Marian Zacharski in Department I of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the civilian intelligence service of the People’s Republic of Poland) did not have the character of “service for a totalitarian state”. General Zacharski was represented in this case by barrister Jan Dudzik from the Warsaw office of the Law Firm. The hearing was held remotely and the General attended from his home outside Poland.

Marian Zacharski is a legend of Polish intelligence and author of numerous publications, mainly historical. He conducted his operations in the United States, acquiring for Polish intelligence, among others, the latest American military technologies. After being arrested by the FBI in 1981, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Los Angeles court. In 1985, he was part of a group of people exchanged between the Cold War superpowers, which took place on the so-called “bridge of spies” (Glienicke Bridge) in Berlin. After 1990, he held top positions in Polish intelligence. In 1995. he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General by President Lech Wałęsa.

The decision of the Regional Court in Warsaw in favour of General Zacharski is yet another important ruling in the cases conducted by our Law Firm and involving appeals by former officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs against decisions on the reduction of pensions issued by the Director of the Pension Fund of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration.