Edward Mazur

Edward Mazur (1946-) - Polish businessman, accused of paying for the murder in 1998 of General Marek Papała by Polish prosecutors for the sum of $40,000. Papała was Poland's equivalent of the US head of FBI appointed by the left-wing government of Prime Minister Leszek Miller. The Papala contract killing is widely regarded as the most serious unsolved crime involving former communist security services SB, high-ranking members of the government and the mafia since Poland's transition to democracy in 1989.

One of the 25 richest Poles in 2003, he has dual Polish-American citizenship. Mazur has attempted to muzzle the press both in Poland and in US by bringing charges of defamation against Bogdan Lodyga president of the Chicago-based Foundation for Free Speech [ [http://natoexpansion.org/history.html] , former Solidarity activist and editor Andrzej Jarmakowski of the Chicago Polish language daily Dziennik Chicagowski and Michael Szporer of Siec, a Polish American email bulletin, as well as Polish daily Rzeczpospolita and the current president of Poland Lech Kaczynski for comments he made when he was Minister of Justice. [http://mesh.medill.northwestern.edu/mnschicago/archives/2006/10/polmurd_polish.html] While he was a public figure in Poland, appearing on TV, he lived inconspicuously in Glenview, IL until Law and Justice [PiS] government Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro personally intervened with Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.

Apprehended in The USA in 2006 on a Polish extradition request; on 20 July 2007 the request was rejected by a federal Magistrate Arlander Keys. The Northern Illinois District Court judge did not find there was probable cause to approve the extradition request, mainly because the principal witness, Artur Zirajewski, lacked credibility in the court's view. [http://www.jenner.com/files/tbl_s20Publications%5CRelatedDocumentsPDFs1252%5C1813%5CLegalTimes_Gair_9_10_07.pdf]

Mazur, who moved to the U.S. in the 1960s and quickly rose in the ranks of Cargill. In 1995 he was listed as a major individual investor when he bought Polish milk products company Bakoma, eventually sold to Danone. Mazur owns a medical equipment supply company, acquired much of his wealth during the chaotic, corruption-filled years after Poland shook off communist rule in 1989.

Mazur's lawyers accused Polish authorities of framing their client out of vindictiveness and a desire to smear the leftist opposition, to which Mazur has close ties.