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Restitution commission announces first decision

PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek 10.07.2017 14:40
A commission probing controversial property restitution cases in Warsaw has handed out its first decision, repealing an earlier City Hall decision.
Warsaw. Photo: Skitterphoto/pexels.com/CC0 LicenseWarsaw. Photo: Skitterphoto/pexels.com/CC0 License

City Hall had earlier given perpetual usage rights to two pieces of prime Warsaw real estate to a man who had bought up rights to the properties from the descendants of their former owners.

The decision taken on Monday, pertaining to one of the buildings, was the powerful new commission's first in its inquiry into a scandal over the restitution of prime real estate in the Polish capital.

One of the properties housed a prestigious school that was forced to move premises after the rights to the building were handed over.

Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz Waltz was summonsed to the hearings but declined to attend, receiving a PLN 3,000 fine each time.

The origins of the scandal date back to the seizure of property under the October 1945 Bierut Decree, named after former Polish communist leader Bolesław Bierut, which legalised the confiscation of plots of private land in the capital.

Thousands of private buildings were taken from their owners. After the fall of communism in Poland in 1989 it has been possible to submit claims for the return of such confiscated property. (vb/pk)

Source: PAP

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