State drops charges against union chief

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 11

State drops charges against union chief

NZPA-Reuter Gdansk Court authorities dropped criminal slander charges against the Solidarity leader, Lech Walesa, at his trial yesterday, which he immediately hailed as a first step towards compromise in Poland.

Mr Walesa, surrounded by jubilant supporters at the Gdansk Regional Court, said “Reason has won out. This is the first step towards compromise since December, 1981.” Mr Walesa was referring to the Communist Government’s suppression of the Solidarity free trade union under martial law.

No evidence was offered against him. He was accused by 15 electoral officers of slandering them in statements he made during the General Election in October, which Solidarity urged its supporters to boycott Instead, the prosecution told Chief Judge Jerzy Lenarcik that the officials could withdraw the complaint if Mr Walesa would "fjiaike a statement

would satisfy them.” Mr Walesa rose at once and said, “My intention was not to slander anyone. My intention was not to degrade anyone.” Court sources said a final settlement was reached during an adjournment afterwards in negotiations between court officials and defence lawyers. When the session resumed Judge Lenarcik accepted the prosecution’s request for permission to withdraw the charges but gave the electoral officials two weeks to decide whether to pursue a civil suit against Mr Walesa.

Mr Walesa, facing trial for the first time since martial law was declared, risked a maximum jail sentence of two years if convicted or a SUS3OOO ($5610) fine. After Mr Walesa’s statement denying that he had intended to defame the election officers, Judge Lenarcik pressed him to be more explicit But he repeated only: “I am sticking to what I

Defence lawyers said they suspected the Court was trying to extract a face-saving apology from him. They denied he had done anything he need apologise for. The electoral officials complained that they had been impugned by communiques, which he issued to Western reporters, in which he gave figures for the election turn-out that were much lower than the Government’s.

Mr Walesa said his figures were based on monitoring of the poll by Solidarity activists. In the days before the trial the Government showed increasing signs of regarding it as a political embarrassment that they would prefer to drop without convicting Mr Walesa.

A former deputy Prime Minister, Mieczyslaw Rakowski, a close adviser to the President, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, said last week, “Neither the party nor the Government has any wish to put Walesa on political trial.”