After a drunken brawl, a Belarusian grabbed a 13-centimeter knife and sent two Ukrainian neighbors to the hospital with wounds. Now, the appeals court has reduced his sentence — here's why.
The Appeal Court in Wrocław, on May 8, 2026, partially amended the verdict against Belarusian citizen V. M., who was convicted of a knife attack on two men from Ukraine. The prison sentence was reduced from 4 years and 6 months to 3 years — the court ruled that the Belarusian did not, after all, intend to cause life-threatening injuries.
According to the case materials, on the night of December 11, 2024, in the locality of K., Legnica district, an argument arose in one of the residential rooms between V. M. and his two neighbors from Ukraine — D. U. and U. M. — over a phone: the Belarusian began checking the men's personal belongings. After this, he left the room. He returned with a knife and struck both.
D. U. received a stab wound in the area of the left ribs, 4 cm long; treatment took less than a week. U. M. was wounded in the abdomen, near the navel, with bleeding from the large intestine — recovery took more than seven days.
All participants in the incident were drunk: the Belarusian had 0.75 mg/L of alcohol in his exhaled breath, D. U. had 1.19 mg/L, and U. M. had 0.2 mg/L.
The District Court in Legnica, on October 22, 2025, found V. M. guilty of attempted grievous bodily harm and sentenced him to 4 years and 6 months of imprisonment.
The Appeal Court disagreed precisely with this qualification. The judges noted that the depth of the wound — only about 4 cm — was significantly less than the length of the knife blade, which was approximately 13 cm: if the Belarusian had truly intended to cause serious injuries, he would have had the opportunity to inflict a much deeper blow.
There was also no prior conflict between the parties that would indicate an intent to cause particularly severe harm.
As a result, the court found that V. M. acted with the simple intent to cause victims moderate injuries, and reclassified the action under the relevant articles of the Polish Criminal Code concerning moderate and minor injuries.
Consequently, the Appeal Court sentenced V. M. to 3 years of imprisonment.
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