Slawomir SikoraSławomir Artur Sikora (born October 3, 1964 in Warsaw) – Polish investigative journalist, social activist, writer, entrepreneur, protagonist of „Stefan” from Polish criminal  film Dług [The Debt] (1999), directed by Krzysztof Krauze.Slawomir Sikora

After being convicted and imprisoned in 1994, he was pardoned by President Aleksander Kwasniewski in 2005 as a result of an intensive campaign on the Internet – 38,000 people signed the pardon application, including personal requests from public figures such as: director of the film Debt Krzysztof Krauze, co-writer of the film Jerzy Morawski, Gazeta Wyborcza journalist Bogdan Wróblewski, Piotr Pytlakowski, Janina Paradowska, Jerzy Pilch, Paweł Moczydłowski, Andrzej Bałandynowicz, Piotr Kruszyński, Barbara Toruńczyk, Elżbieta Różańska, Władysław Frasyniuk, Jan Lityński, Paweł Poncyliusz, Jarosław Kaczyński, Lech Nikolski, Krzysztof Janik, prof. Maria Szyszkowska, Ninel Kameraz-Kos, Urszula Fuks, Jan Jagielski, Gen. Slawomir Petelicki, Krystian Legierski. Author of the books My Debt (2004), Embedded (2008), My Debt. The Power of Survival (2022), creator of one of the most widely read blogs „I pay off the debt” on Interia.pl (2005-2012).

Youth

He was born in Warsaw (Upper Mokotow). He is the son of Włodzimierz Sikora and Ada Wanda Sikora, née Lipińska, on his mother’s side, his grandfather Antoni Lipiński and grandmother Helena Lipińska, née Wojakowska. Grandfather died a tragic death in 1937, falling under an oncoming train on the Warsaw-Wesoła route. He was a wealthy man, working as a manager at the Adria restaurant. Jan Jagielski of the Jewish Historical Institute put forward the thesis that Grandfather Antoni was pushed out under the oncoming train because he worked in the so-called „Two”. This was counterintelligence or intelligence. The Warsaw Adria was frequented by the most important luminaries of the Polish political scene, including military officers.

His father, Wlodzimierz Sikora, came from the Beskid Zywiec region, from the village of Lachowice near Zywiec. He came to Warsaw as a young boy and took a job at the newly built Warsaw Steelworks in Warsaw’s Zoliborz district.

Grandmother Helena had three children: the eldest Zbigniew, the middle Ada Wanda and the youngest Stanislaw. During World War II, the youngest son Stanislaw was hidden with Salesian priests in Czerwińsk-on-Vistula throughout the war. Ada Wanda spent the war with the Loretto nuns at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Loretto near Wyszkow. The eldest son Zbigniew and his mother spent the time of the German occupation in Praga in the main house of the Loretto nuns. Grandmother Helena was an active member of the PPS before the war. After the war, she was active in party structures after unification in the PZPR. Years later, he learned that he had Jewish ancestry from his mother. For many years, no one at home wanted to answer the question of why his grandmother did not have children by her side during World War II, but were placed in convents. He only got the answer after his mother’s death from her friend Lidia Bajkowska, with whom she had a long friendship.

Sikora was baptized and received his first Holy Communion at the Sanctuary of St. Andrew Bobola in Warsaw. When he was a child, he went on summer vacations to Urla on the Liwiec River, to Zychczyn and Zakrzow. There, under the care of his grandmother Helena, he spent his vacations.

Sikora attended the Zygmunt Modzelewski High School No. 49 (now: Goethe High School) in Warsaw, and in the third grade moved to the Klementyna Hoffman High School No. 9 in Śródmieście district. After graduating from high school, he was admitted to the Post-Secondary School for Social Workers on Obrońców Street in Saska Kępa. He graduated after three years. He received a year of so-called „dean’s leave” during his studies. High school, he admits, was a form of hiding from doing basic military service. He did his studies in pedagogy at the University of Health Education and Social Sciences in Lodz.

Since 1980 he practiced actively in the shotokan karate section of the Society for the Promotion of Physical Culture „Młodzieżowiec”. He practiced there actively for nearly seven years until the section was disbanded. His coach was Andrzej Jędrocha. After that, he practiced in various places, but no longer as an associate.

Sikora tried to leave the country in the 1980s, like two of his friends, for Australia or the USA. He did not receive permission from the Military Complementary Headquarters to go abroad because he was a person under basic military service. He was called up for military service in 1987 to unit 4829 in Góra Kalwaria near Warsaw: Internal Defense Forces, Reconnaissance Company. In his military booklet, he was listed as a scout. It was an elite unit, called „Łapaje”. He was one of the best soldiers in the so-called unitar, or basic training of soldiers. He was designated to take the oath as a distinguished soldier in front of the unit’s banner. After a few weeks, he began to have neurological complications. He stayed in the unit’s infirmary for more than 40 days, then in a military hospital on Szaserów Street in Warsaw. The results of a comprehensive examination led to the conclusion that he had symptoms of multiple sclerosis. He was given an 18-month break from service. He was not called back to the army.

In 1988 he enrolled in a club, where he trained in dance for several years. In 1989 he met Ryszard Sobocinski, who was the Polish champion in dancing. Together they attended classes at the „Stodoła” student club in Warsaw. He stood on the gate at the student club „Klub Karuzela” in Wola. With his bouncer’s card, he spent his time between dancing, working on the gate and searching for his place on earth in Warsaw student clubs: „Hybrydy”, „Hades”, „Klub Riviera Remont”, „Klub Park” and „Stodoła”. In the early 1990s, he began frequenting the „SARP” club on Foksal Street.

Conviction, imprisonment and pardon

As a young man he began his adventure in entrepreneurship. He ran various businesses in those days. In 1993, he met a colleague from years before, and after some time, the latter became his tormentor, resulting in the payment of racketeering fees. Together with his partner Artur Brylinski, he was the victim of extortion, beatings and intimidation.

On March 8, 1994, he and his accomplice carried out the murder of his tormentor Grzegorz G. and his bodyguard Mariusz K. He turned himself in to the police as a witness and admitted his involvement in the double murder near Maciejowice. The case was handled by prosecutor Dariusz Winiarek of the Otwock district prosecutor’s office. In November 1997, he was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment by a panel of judges presided over by Judge Maria Tarasiewicz in the District Court, Department XVIII for the city of Warsaw, by an invalid sentence. In May 1999, the Court of Appeals for the City of Warsaw, presided over by Judge Teresa Rysinska, upheld the sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment.

Sikora was sent to the Detention Center in Warsaw at Rakowiecka Street, where he remained until May 1995, after which he was transferred to the Penal Institution in Warsaw-Bialoleka at 1b Ciupagi Street. He worked as a librarian, day care worker, cleaner and deposit storekeeper. He also participated in meetings organized by Gedeonites, in this case members of the Pentecostal church community from Sienna Street in Warsaw. This is how Andrzej Starzynski wrote about his meeting with Sikora:

„It all started one Saturday, when after a meeting with a large group of inmates of the Bialoleka Penitentiary Institution, Stefan approached us, gave his personal information and said that he was facing a very high sentence, and that he „seriously” wanted to get acquainted with Christianity. He received from us a Bible and an invitation to another meeting. We rejoiced at this readiness of his, but for the next six months we did not see him at any meeting. Later, one of the prison’s forced residents told us that a group of prisoners from the first ward, which we had somehow failed to reach, had been asking for a meeting for several months already. In this very group was Stefan, who had been transferred from another ward. From then on he was a regular participant in our meetings, and thanks to this we were able to participate in the process of his spiritual transformation.”

In June 1999 he was transferred to the new Detention Center in Radom. In August 1999, he was taken to the Detention Center in Warsaw to study at the prison’s printing school. Later transported to the Penitentiary in Potulice, in February 2000 – to the Penitentiary in Wloclawek. He takes up a job at the prison television station. He also serves meals in the residential pavilion. During this time, he further educates himself with textbooks on economics and business management from the School of Economics.

While serving his sentence, Sikora prepared an exhibition on the Holocaust, at which Shevah Weiss, Israel’s ambassador to Poland, and Bishop Bronislaw Dembowski were present. From a colleague who ran his website and collected signatures for clemency, he learned about the neglected skarszew Jewish cemetery. Taking advantage of a break in his sentence, he organized a campaign to clean up the necropolis.

He spent 10 years in the Warsaw-Bialoleka and Wloclawek prisons, including the period of his arrest. As of 2004, he was allowed a break in his sentence due to his health. He asked for pardon twice: in 2002 and 2003. He was finally pardoned by Aleksander Kwasniewski on December 5, 2005 (Brylinski was pardoned in December 2010 by President Bronislaw Komorowski).

Literary, journalistic and film activity

Slawomir Sikora became involved in the activities of the „Bartnicka 10” Prison Literary Club in Wloclawek prison. His poem won first prize in a literary competition. During his sentence, he learned German, Russian while staying in a cell with citizens of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and learned English by correspondence.

During his sentence he read fiction and many items on the subject of imprisonment in different periods of human history. He was mainly interested in literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, with a particular focus on camp literature: Grzesiuk’s Five Years of the Hangover, Wieslaw Kielar’s Anus Mundi, Samuel Willenberg’s Revolt at Treblinka, James Jones’ From Here to Eternity, Seweryn Szmaglewski’s Smokes Over Birkenau, Tadeusz Borowski’s Please Go to the Gas.

During his work in prison television, he watched more than 1,000 documentaries: historical, travel, scientific and dealing with the problem of man’s stay in confinement. He prepared broadcasts for more than 1,000 convicts based on such channels as National Geographic, Avanti, Discovery.

His book My Debt became an event at the International Book Fair in Warsaw in May 2004. He is also the author of books containing poems and short stories: Katharsis and Richard and (un)friends. In 2008, the Albatros publishing house published the book Osadzony, which Sikora wrote together with journalist Radoslaw Gruca. In it, he confessed about his life, particularly his years in prison. In 2007, together with Beata Postnikoff, he wrote the play Lustration in a Psychiatric Hospital.

He collaborated with the international website Sevenload. He co-produced a documentary film with AnnMedia: he produced the film From Taybeh to Jerusalem, which tells the story of the last all-Christian enclave in Israel, for the Witelon State Higher Vocational School in Legnica.

He has been a member of the Association of Polish Republic Journalists since 2014.

Professional and social activity

In 2008 Sikora spent six months in Iceland. At the time, he led the extradition of a dangerous criminal who was hiding in the country. As a result, the Icelandic government decided to expand cooperation with Poland in extradition.

In December 2008 Slawomir Sikora launched „Freedom Without Borders” (43dom.pl), a „tool for social dialogue” that addressed the issues of the civil state and learning citizens’ shared responsibility for democracy. Nineteen Polish writers from around the world worked for it, including Leopold Sobel, the creator of the „Plotkies” website in London.

Slawomir Sikora has been working on prison issues for more than 10 years. To this end, he established the Prof. Kazimierz Twardowski European Center for the Support of Social Initiatives (FECWIS) Foundation in Poznań.

Since his release from prison, he has actively participated in meetings with students at many academic centers. He has taken part in more than 200 meetings and symposia on re-socialization, issues of social exclusion, social readaptation, human rights or civil liberty in the broad sense, organized by such universities as the University of Warsaw, Jagiellonian University, University of Szczecin, University of Gdansk, University of Wroclaw, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Academy of Special Pedagogy in Warsaw or Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw. He is also invited to private universities, as well as to local or state institutions. He took part in a meeting organized in the Sejm of the Republic of Poland by the Polish Film Institute.

He has made several projects that rub shoulders with prison issues, such as „Law or Fist.” The first episode dealt with the lynching in Wlodow. A few years later Slawomir Sikora joined the promotion of the film Lynch under the slogan „No more Debt and Lynch.”

Slawomir Sikora was involved in obtaining citizenship for Tôn Vân Anh, a Vietnamese dissident who would have been deported to Vietnam and imprisoned in one of the camps for disobedient citizens, had it not been for the decision of President Bronislaw Komorowski, who granted her Polish citizenship.

Through a major daily newspaper in Poland, Slawomir Sikora informed the public about the killing of Christians in the Middle East in Iraq, primarily Assyrians. The Assyrians began to be seen as a backstop for the troops of the anti-Saddam coalition. By Muslims, the troops were viewed as occupying and the local Christians cooperating with them as traitors. Slawomir Sikora had the opportunity to work with Aid to the Church in Need during this period, getting to know its leader Rev. Prof. Waldemar Cisło. Thanks to good cooperation with the Witelon State University of Applied Sciences in Legnica, he organized a conference on the situation of Christians in the modern world, with a special focus on Assyrian Christians in Iraq.

Sikora led the „Fighting Musical Illiteracy – Lidia Bajkowska” project, which is a promotion of Lidia Bajkowska’s innovative method. Among others, Atsuko Seta, one of the world’s most famous pianists from Japan, has become an ambassador of the project.

Sikora has been promoting „Probation” – an original project of the chairman of the FECWIS Program Council – for many years, together with Prof. Dr. Andrzej Bałandynowicz.

Slawomir Sikora led the closure of the crossover track that the Cross Team Stare Babice association built in the buffer zone of the Kampinos National Park. For several years, residents were unable to overcome local arrangements. The crossovers made life miserable, especially on weekends, for the residents of Wojcieszyn and the Kampinos Forest. Slawomir Sikora’s intervention led to the closure of the track on June 1, 2016.

Sikora became involved in helping entrepreneur Marcin Stefanski of Czestochowa in his fight against the local so-called closed circuit.

He publicized the case of the Bialogard newborn by sharing a video Father’s Statement, which was shown by all TV stations. On Facebook, the father’s statement was viewed by more than 735,000 people and on YouTube by more than 500,000.

Slawomir Sikora is developing a social media initiative called „Control of the Prosecutor’s Office” to change the law on participation by people reporting suspected crimes to the prosecutor’s office. Nearly 5,000 users have gathered in this initiative. In turn, in 2018 he launched the initiative „Dissenting Justice,” catching, publicizing and stigmatizing pathologies within the bosom of the Polish judiciary, police and prosecutors.

Slawomir Sikora is heavily involved in bringing transparency to vaccination in Poland. He succeeded in publicizing with journalists the shady connections of Krzysztof Łanda, a deputy minister in the Health Ministry. After eight months, Krzysztof Łanda resigned.

Between 2018 and 2019, Sikora collaborated with Grodno Group S.A. in establishing the company’s branch in Glogow. He was director of the branch during its organization. After building the sales infrastructure, he handed over management to a new director. He continues to work with Grodno Group S.A. on a partnership basis. In 2021-2022, he became Grodno Group S.A.’s representative for Africa.

Slawomir Sikora is the author of the „Jabes – History of Converted Villains” project:

„The Jabes project is primarily an outgrowth of my prison experience. Unfortunately, it is little talked about that people leaving penitentiary units are condemned to social ostracism, to lack of work, to homelessness, and this consequently leads to a return to the criminal path. In Poland, the recidivism rate in prisons is very high. We are particularly interested in the juvenile offender, who is at the highest risk of being a recidivist. That’s why we decided to focus primarily on this group as part of the Jabes project. We will record the reflections especially of those sentenced to long-term sentences i.e. 25 years, life imprisonment, who after many years behind bars have become different people, often converts. We will show their reflections at closed meetings of young people from correctional institutions and juvenile shelters. Here we have established cooperation with the directors of the mentioned institutions. Professionals from various fields will provide substantive supervision. We relied primarily on the members of the foundation’s council, but also on the people and institutions with whom we cooperate. Among them is the Mateusz Association from Toruń with its leader Waldemar Dąbrowski, who created a unique method of working with people leaving penitentiary units. Today, the most prominent specialists dealing with the problems of prison leavers are interested in the effective method. I would also like to mention Dr. Miroslaw Grewinski, rector of the Janusz Korczak Higher School of Pedagogy in Warsaw and member of the Council for the Readaptation of Prisoners at the Minister of Justice, who has actively joined our project.”

Current projects

Slawomir Sikora is active at the St. Clement Hofbauer parish in Glogow. In 2017 he organized a festival at the parish, which was attended by several thousand residents of Glogow. It was the first initiative on such a scale in the city. Patronage of the 2018 festivities was extended to Trwam Television, Radio Maryja, Nasz Dziennik and local media. As part of the first activities, a new traffic circle in Glogow near the parish was successfully named after St. Clement Hofbauer.

Together with the parish’s pastor, Father Lukasz Wojcik, he founded the Klemens Hofbauer Catholic Educational Association. Together with the Redemptorist Order in Glogow, he founded the Catholic kindergarten „God’s House” at the parish of St. Clement Hofbauer in Glogow in 2021. Work on the kindergarten lasted more than six years. During this time he was president of the „Education with Values Lower Silesia Branch” Foundation.

In January 2022, Sikora began work on the book My Debt. The Power of Survival, which went out in print in November 2022 in Polish and English. In 2022, he undertook preparations for the No War Global Project. He recorded promotional materials and took part in television broadcasts. In 2022, he undertook preparations on the „Out Of Beyond Arrangements” project. In 2023, he organized the „Out Of Beyond Arrangements” project registered as a newspaper title under number 351 with the position of editor-in-chief.

In March 2023, he sailed on the yacht BorkumRiff II as part of the „NO War” project, as responsible for promoting the cruise. In April/May 2023, he led the world’s first-ever live stream from the Atlantic via social media TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. After arriving in Grenada, he interacted with the local establishment, organizing, among other things, a visit by Grenada’s prime minister on the BorkumRiff II yacht.