Crime boss or framed insider?

Crime boss or framed insider?
Poland is trying to extradite Edward Mazur of Glenview, accused of a political murder for hire; defenders call the case against him shaky

By Tom Hundley
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published May 21, 2007


WARSAW -- When FBI Director Robert Mueller visited Warsaw last September, diplomatic protocol called for him to meet with his Polish counterpart, Gen. Marek Bienkowski, head of the national police force. But Bienkowski was determined that the occasion was going to be more than a handshake and a photo op.

"We wanted to explain to Mr. Mueller the importance of our case. We wanted him to understand that this case is something like the Kennedy assassination in your country," said Pawel Biedziak, a Bienkowski aide who was at the meeting.

The case in question is the slaying nine years ago of Gen. Marek Papala, one of Bienkowski's predecessors as Poland's top cop.

Papala was shot in the head in the parking lot outside his Warsaw apartment. There were no witnesses, but Polish authorities now assert that the killer was hired by Edward Mazur, a successful Polish-American businessman from Glenview, Ill.

The Mazur case is front-page news in Poland, and Mazur, 60, has been variously described in the Polish media as a millionaire businessman, a savvy political insider and a double agent for the CIA, and has been accused by the government of being an organized-crime godfather and spy for the communist secret police. He was a confidant to several Polish prime ministers and, according to Polish officials, is a man whose secrets could send some of Poland's most powerful politicians to prison for a long time.

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