Homeless Pole assaulted at Sloterplas

The 40-year-old Krzysztof Malinowski, also known as “Kryszek”, was found severely injured and unconscious on 24 August 2020 in the reeds at the edge of the Sloterplas in Amsterdam-West, near the area around Christoffel Plantijnpad. He was Polish, had no fixed address and lived in tents around the Sloterplas and in Amsterdam’s city centre. According to police, he had come to the Netherlands in February 2020 hoping to earn money in construction, but partly because of the coronavirus period he ended up living on the streets. Malinowski had many injuries that police said were the result of severe violence; he was taken to hospital, but died later that same evening from serious brain injury. Police initially offered a €15,000 reward for information leading to those responsible and later arrested two Polish men without fixed addresses: Robert N. and Lukasz U. According to the Public Prosecution Service, they were part of a group of Polish men with whom Malinowski more or less lived, and prosecutors alleged that they kicked and beat him during an argument before leaving him in or near a tent by the water. At first instance, prosecutors demanded twelve years in prison for both suspects, but in August 2022 the Amsterdam court acquitted them of murder, manslaughter and fatal assault, because it could not be established beyond doubt how Malinowski had sustained his injuries, when exactly that had happened and who was responsible. Lukasz U. was, however, sentenced at that stage to three months in prison for leaving Malinowski helpless, because the court found that he should have understood that the victim was in mortal danger. The prosecution appealed. In January 2026, the Court of Appeal reached a different conclusion: it found no evidence of a premeditated plan and therefore acquitted the suspects of murder, but it did find proven that Malinowski had been subjected to a prolonged assault and had died as a result. One suspect, described in reports as a 43-year-old man, was sentenced on appeal to 10 years and 6 months in prison for the fatal assault. The second suspect, a 44-year-old man, was not convicted of involvement in the assault, but received ten weeks in prison because he knew Malinowski was in mortal danger and still chose not to call for help.