Judge Dariusz Łubowski adjourned the Warsaw hearing to 3 December 2026 after prosecutor Piotr Żak cited missing proof that one defendant had been served the summons.
RMF FM reported the trial had begun with 29 defendants, while TVP Info and Polsat News reported it was postponed with 23 people due to appear.
The indictment covers 29 people and 67 offences, mostly corruption, plus false study records, fraud and money laundering, and was sent to court in autumn 2025.
Seven of the 29 accused agreed to voluntary punishment and six received convicting verdicts in separate cases, while one defendant refused that route.
Prosecutors say Jacek Sutryk paid a 75,000 zloty bribe via a fictitious job and earned 496,373 zloty in board fees, charges he does not admit.
The trial in the Collegium Humanum case was due to open at a Warsaw court on Thursday, 15 October 2026, but the judge adjourned it to 3 December. Prosecutor Piotr Żak asked for the delay because there was no proof that one defendant had been served the summons, and Judge Dariusz Łubowski agreed. A Polsat News reporter said that defendant still has to be formally served with the indictment, and that a December start could still be affected by other obstacles. The court also rejected a prosecution request to send the case back to prosecutors.
Early reporting differed on whether the trial had started. RMF FM said it had opened at the Warsaw District Court with 29 defendants, while TVP Info and Polsat News reported that it did not start. TVP Info said seven of the 29 accused agreed to voluntary punishment, six received convicting verdicts in separate proceedings, and one defendant withdrew from that route, leaving 23 people for the hearing.
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The indictment, sent to court by the Silesian division of the National Prosecutor's Office in autumn 2025, lists 67 offences over 623 pages. Most are corruption-related, alongside falsified study records, fraud and money laundering. Investigators say the university issued false MBA, bachelor's and master's certificates. Prosecutors allege the former rector accepted financial and personal benefits many times in exchange for documents confirming untruths, with help from staff and people holding public posts. Radio Wrocław reports that the CBA and the National Prosecutor's Office secured suspects' assets worth over 176 million zloty.
According to Radio Wrocław, an executive MBA let its holder sit on supervisory boards of state-owned and municipal companies without a state exam, and a standard course cost around 10,000 zloty per person. The State Fire Service headquarters reportedly spent 800,000 zloty on such training. Among the 29 defendants are former MEP Karol Karski, a former long-serving PiS MEP, former ambassador to France Jan Rościszewski, dismissed at the end of 2025 after CBA action, and businessman Marian Dymalski, whom investigators describe as one of the main recruiters. Three former State Fire Service officers are also charged, including a former chief commandant who held the post from 2019 to 2024.
Wrocław mayor Jacek Sutryk was detained at his home on 14 November 2024 and charged the same day by prosecutors in Katowice. A bail of 200,000 zloty was set, together with police supervision and a ban on contacting other participants, and he returned to work at city hall the next day. The indictment published on 27 November 2025 lists four offences: a 75,000 zloty bribe given to the former rector through a fictitious job at Wrocławski Park Technologiczny, and three fraud counts linked to supervisory boards of three municipal companies. Prosecutors say he used a forged express MBA to meet formal requirements, which earned him 496,373 zloty in board fees.
Sutryk does not admit guilt and told RMF FM that he sees himself as the injured party. He said prosecutors have their own case and that courts, not politicians or journalists, will weigh the evidence.
“I feel more like a victim here.”
Collegium Humanum was founded in Warsaw in 2018 as a private university and offered MBA and other postgraduate courses, with branches in several Polish cities, including Wrocław, and in Uzbekistan. Radio Wrocław says the name disappeared in 2024, and that Newsweek published the first investigations in 2022. The CBA detained the former rector in 2024, and a court appointed a forced administrator for the university.
The case moved from Katowice to Warsaw after the Katowice appeal court ruled in January. Judges there argued that 32 of the 76 witnesses to be questioned live in Warsaw and only a few in Silesia. The next hearing is set for 3 December 2026.
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The Warsaw trial in the Collegium Humanum diploma case, which includes Wrocław mayor Jacek Sutryk, was adjourned because there was no proof that one defendant had received the summons. Early RMF FM reporting had said the hearing began.
AI text based on reports by TVP Info, polsatnews.pl, rmf24.pl and other publishers. Published .