Wow - check this out: http://www.independent.ie/world-news/novelist-on-trial-for-murder-described-in-his-book-1054268.html
Novelist on trial for murder described in his book
By Roger Boyes
Thursday August 09 2007
AN author leafing through a newspaper comes across tantalising details of a murder so grisly he becomes obsessed, and imagines the events into a novel.
Or a murderer, so self-satisfied with the brilliance of his 'perfect crime', pens an account to pass off as fiction.
Where reality ends and fiction begins in the stomach-turning novel 'Amok' is the central task before the jury in Poland's trial of the decade. Four years after he published his bloody bestseller, Krystian Bala has found himself on trial for the same torture and murder he detailed in his novel.
'Amok', Bala claims, was inspired by news reports of the murder of a Polish businessman, Dariusz J, whose tortured and mutilated body was fished out of the Oder river in the town of Wroclaw in December 2000. His death had been grim.
Motive
With no motive or suspect, the police were stumped. The case was broadcast on Poland's version of the television programme 'Crimewatch' but it produced no leads - only some strange e-mails sent from internet cafes in Indonesia and South Korea, describing the murder as "the perfect crime".
Five years later, police received an anonymous call. They were told to look at the book 'Amok', published in 2003, three years after the killing. The book contained intimate details of the murder that could be known only to police - or the killer. Further investigations revealed the victim was an acquaintance of Bala's estranged wife.
Bala was arrested and, according to him, beaten and insulted during a day of interrogation. After three days, Bala was released when police, who denied ill-treating the writer, conceded evidence was slim.
But the first break for the police came when they discovered Bala was on a trip to South Korea and Indonesia at the time the e-mails were sent. Then they discovered he had sold a mobile phone like the victim's four days after the body of Dariusz J was discovered.
During the trial, which has now been adjourned, Bala has managed to answer almost every nugget of evidence against him. The case, his lawyer says, is largely circumstantial - "like the plot of a novel". (© The Times, London)
- Roger Boyes
Novelist on trial for murder described in his book
By Roger Boyes
Thursday August 09 2007
AN author leafing through a newspaper comes across tantalising details of a murder so grisly he becomes obsessed, and imagines the events into a novel.
Or a murderer, so self-satisfied with the brilliance of his 'perfect crime', pens an account to pass off as fiction.
Where reality ends and fiction begins in the stomach-turning novel 'Amok' is the central task before the jury in Poland's trial of the decade. Four years after he published his bloody bestseller, Krystian Bala has found himself on trial for the same torture and murder he detailed in his novel.
'Amok', Bala claims, was inspired by news reports of the murder of a Polish businessman, Dariusz J, whose tortured and mutilated body was fished out of the Oder river in the town of Wroclaw in December 2000. His death had been grim.
Motive
With no motive or suspect, the police were stumped. The case was broadcast on Poland's version of the television programme 'Crimewatch' but it produced no leads - only some strange e-mails sent from internet cafes in Indonesia and South Korea, describing the murder as "the perfect crime".
Five years later, police received an anonymous call. They were told to look at the book 'Amok', published in 2003, three years after the killing. The book contained intimate details of the murder that could be known only to police - or the killer. Further investigations revealed the victim was an acquaintance of Bala's estranged wife.
Bala was arrested and, according to him, beaten and insulted during a day of interrogation. After three days, Bala was released when police, who denied ill-treating the writer, conceded evidence was slim.
But the first break for the police came when they discovered Bala was on a trip to South Korea and Indonesia at the time the e-mails were sent. Then they discovered he had sold a mobile phone like the victim's four days after the body of Dariusz J was discovered.
During the trial, which has now been adjourned, Bala has managed to answer almost every nugget of evidence against him. The case, his lawyer says, is largely circumstantial - "like the plot of a novel". (© The Times, London)
- Roger Boyes
