Reuters/Warsaw
Lawyers of Polish pro-democracy veteran Lech Walesa and President Lech Kaczynski met in court yesterday at the start of a trial over charges that the former Solidarity trade union leader once worked as a communist spy.
The trial, which the court adjourned until December 18 to allow more time for preparation, pits Walesa against Kaczynski, a former ally in the Solidarity movement that helped to topple communism in 1989.
Walesa wants a retraction and 100,000 zlotys ($36,140) in damages from Kaczynski for saying in an interview last year that he believed the ex-Solidarity leader had spied for the communist secret service in the 1970s under the code-name “Bolek”.
Walesa, now 66, has long denied the allegations and a court ruled nearly 10 years ago that he was innocent.
“As long as I have a court verdict favourable to me, nobody - not even the head of state - can publicly state that it’s not true,” Walesa was quoted by Polsat News TV station as saying before the trial started.
Kaczynski’s comments echoed those made in a recent book published by a state body, the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), which said Walesa had worked for a time for the regime.
The IPN was created to supervise communist-era files and to bring communist collaborators to justice. Critics say the IPN, which has Kaczynski’s strong backing, conducts politically motivated witch hunts instead of objective historical research.
Walesa served as Poland’s first democratic president from 1990 to 1995. He won the Nobel peace prize in 1983 for his campaign to bring democracy to Poland.
Earlier this year, Walesa threatened to return his Nobel prize and leave Poland if the allegations about past links to the communists persisted. |
