Poland ? A court Thursday convicted 15 police officers of shooting to death nine miners who protesting a Communist crackdown on the Solidarity movement in Poland in 1981.

The decision drew loud applause from the packed courtroom in the southern mining center of Katowice. Many of those in court sang the Polish national anthem, despite calls from Judge Monika Sliwinska for order.

The court ruled that police division leader Romuald Cieslak gave the order to open fire on miners during protests in December 1981 at the Wujek and Manifest Lipcowy mines, killing nine miners and wounding 25.

In a nationally televised ruling, Sliwinska called the trial “one of the most difficult … and painful” stemming from 18 months of martial law, during which 100 people were killed.

She added that despite the verdict, “all of the mechanisms and decisions taken on the use of firearms against striking miners will probably never be fully clarified.”

The miners were demonstrating against the government’s imposition of martial law, a crackdown aimed at crushing the Solidarity movement.

The court sentenced Cieslak to 11 years in prison.