Taxi Driver from Tajikistan Fatally Hit a Belarusian Woman in Poland — And Calmly Left the Country

On June 1, Natallia was returning from work when a taxi driver in a 'Toyota' hit her in the middle of a pedestrian crossing. The driver ran over the woman twice. A witness said that after the first impact, Natallia tried to get up, but the car hit her a second time and pinned her against a nearby BMW. The taxi was stopped only by witnesses.

Behind the wheel was Shahnoz M., a citizen of Tajikistan. She had a work visa for a construction company in Szczecin. What she was doing in Warsaw driving a taxi is unknown.

Family of Belarusian Dentists

Natallia and her husband Pavel are Belarusian dentists who moved to Poland in February 2022. Pavel treated patients, while Natallia handled the clinic's documents and affairs. The couple was raising two daughters. And in May, a few weeks before the tragedy, they opened their own clinic.

On the day of the accident, Natallia tried to call her husband, but he was with a patient and declined the call. His eldest daughter informed him about the accident. When Pavel arrived, his wife was still partially lying under the car, was pale, and said she couldn't feel her legs.

Five Operations

Natallia was taken to the Ministry of Internal Affairs clinical hospital. Her injuries were very severe: a fractured pelvis and damaged hip joint, fractured vertebral processes, abdominal trauma, and crushed internal organs.

The woman underwent five surgeries, intestinal and stomach necrosis, and a medically induced coma. Pavel was by her side every day, convincing his wife that she would make it through. Natallia died on June 16.

Taxi Driver Left Poland the Day After the Belarusian Woman's Death

For the first two weeks, the case was not even properly investigated. The driver was not interrogated, her phone was not seized, her identity was not verified. The police only inspected the scene and tested the participants for alcohol. The suspect was freely moving around Warsaw.

The case only moved forward after Natallia's death. But already the next day, Shahnoz M. left Poland.

This was not known until September, as no one checked if she was still in the country.

At the same time, the family's lawyers could not access the case materials for months.

On September 2, the prosecutor's office submitted materials to the court to take the suspect into custody and plans to declare her wanted. But even if Shahnoz M. is found in Tajikistan, there is no extradition treaty between Poland and Tajikistan, and Tajikistan is not a party to the European Convention on Extradition. Extradition would depend solely on the goodwill of the local court. The family itself hired a lawyer in Tajikistan to find out if the driver had returned there.

Pavel was left with two daughters. The younger one is 11 years old. The older one took an academic leave and returned to Warsaw to help her father run the clinic. Pavel says that his wife was his only love and best friend his whole life, and that now he only has his children left.

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