Post by Jaga on May 16, 2008 19:52:40 GMT -7
Jaruzelski maintains that he chose martial law as the lesser of two evils, claiming that if Solidarity had brought about the collapse of communism in Poland, a bloody Soviet military intervention would have followed.
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WARSAW (AFP) — A Polish court Wednesday ordered prosecutors investigating the country's last communist president, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, to question top Cold War-era figures including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Warsaw tribunal acted on a request by defence lawyers for Jaruzelski and two co-accused on trial over their regime's 1981 declaration of martial law.
Besides Gorbachev, the court said prosecutors must question British ex-prime minister Margaret Thatcher, as well as former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Polish-born Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to then-US president Jimmy Carter.
Jaruzelski, now 84, was leader of communist Poland and the ruling Polish United Workers' Party in the 1980s.
His co-accused are former party boss Stanislaw Kania and ex-interior minister Czeslaw Kiszczak.
Since communism fell in Poland in 1989, Jaruzelski has faced years of court battles.
In April last year he was formally charged with "communist crimes" for declaring martial law on December 13, 1981 in a bid to stamp out a 17-month challenge to his regime from Solidarity, the independent trade union led by Lech Walesa.
Jaruzelski faces up to 10 years in jail if he is found guilty of "having led an armed organisation of a criminal character".
...
from:
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i2fUEbPmbXWs8XKMeC3jyVeIfvNg
...
WARSAW (AFP) — A Polish court Wednesday ordered prosecutors investigating the country's last communist president, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, to question top Cold War-era figures including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Warsaw tribunal acted on a request by defence lawyers for Jaruzelski and two co-accused on trial over their regime's 1981 declaration of martial law.
Besides Gorbachev, the court said prosecutors must question British ex-prime minister Margaret Thatcher, as well as former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Polish-born Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to then-US president Jimmy Carter.
Jaruzelski, now 84, was leader of communist Poland and the ruling Polish United Workers' Party in the 1980s.
His co-accused are former party boss Stanislaw Kania and ex-interior minister Czeslaw Kiszczak.
Since communism fell in Poland in 1989, Jaruzelski has faced years of court battles.
In April last year he was formally charged with "communist crimes" for declaring martial law on December 13, 1981 in a bid to stamp out a 17-month challenge to his regime from Solidarity, the independent trade union led by Lech Walesa.
Jaruzelski faces up to 10 years in jail if he is found guilty of "having led an armed organisation of a criminal character".
...
from:
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i2fUEbPmbXWs8XKMeC3jyVeIfvNg
