Rzeszów court acquits all 17 defendants in 1998 murder of 17-year-old Iwona Cygan after eight-year trial

The verdict

On Friday, 31 July 2026, the District Court in Rzeszów acquitted all 17 defendants in the killing of 17-year-old Iwona Cygan, whose body was found near a Vistula flood embankment in Łęka Szczucińska on 14 August 1998. The ruling came after an eight-year trial that began in June 2018 and nearly 28 years after the crime. Presiding judge Mariusz Sztorc stated that no evidence emerged to prove the guilt of the main defendant, Paweł K., or any of the other 16 accused. The verdict is not yet final.

The defendants

The prosecution had charged Paweł K. with murder with particular cruelty. His father Józef K. was accused of complicity. The victim's former friend Renata G.-D. faced charges of obstructing the criminal proceedings and giving false testimony. Another 14 defendants, all retired or former police officers, were charged with abuse of power or dereliction of duty for financial gain, and with aiding the perpetrators by hampering the investigation. None of the 17 defendants admitted to the charges.

The crime

Iwona Cygan was killed during the night of 13–14 August 1998. A passer-by discovered her body the following day by the Vistula embankment in Łęka Szczucińska. An autopsy determined she had been strangled, and the perpetrators had staged a sexual assault. According to the prosecution, Paweł K. struck the teenager multiple times with a hard object in Szczucin, then transported her to the flood embankment area where he restrained her and caused her death, allegedly assisted by two other people.

The investigation

The initial investigation, led by prosecutors in Dąbrowa Tarnowska and later Tarnów, was discontinued several times after the perpetrator could not be identified. The case was reopened roughly a decade ago by the Kraków branch of the National Prosecutor's Office, working with officers from the so-called Archive X unit of the Provincial Police Headquarters in Kraków, a team dedicated to unsolved historical crimes. Investigators broke a "conspiracy of silence" in December 2016, leading to the first arrests. Paweł K. was extradited from Austria and arrested on 11 May 2017; he declined to testify. The indictment, filed after more than 19 years, was sent to the Tarnów District Court in December 2017, but all criminal-division judges there recused themselves because one defendant, former officer Maciej Cz., had family ties to Tarnów judges. The case was transferred to Rzeszów.

The trial

Judge Sztorc noted that the court examined roughly 200 volumes of public and classified files, scheduled more than 200 hearing days, and heard 204 public witnesses and 32 anonymous witnesses. Each witness examination often lasted several hours. Sztorc said the length of the proceedings was dictated by procedural thoroughness, adding that pre-trial media coverage had led the public to almost forget the presumption of innocence.

“The court could not forget it. If the proceedings were lengthy, it was because the court subordinated its actions to that principle, so that the guilty would be punished and the innocent would not be held responsible.”

Family reaction

The victim's father, Mieczysław Cygan, and her sister Aneta attended every hearing. After the acquittal was announced, Mieczysław Cygan collapsed in the courtroom and was given medical assistance by police officers present. In earlier interviews, the family said they felt heard by the court and understood the trial's length, though they stressed that the case had consumed 27 years of their lives.

“Everything came out in that courtroom: what they did. What kind of good verdict could there be for us? Giving us back our child. We know that's impossible. That's the only thing that could bring us relief.”

“We want the guilty to be called guilty.”