Ex-minister Tomaszewski, ousted by AWS over allegations, found innocent

Former deputy Prime Minister Janusz Tomaszewski, who two years ago was forced to resign from the government over alleged cooperation with Communist-era secret police, was cleared of the charges yesterday by the Screening Court. The court, which verifies whether public officials cooperated with Communist services, declared Tomaszewski innocent after a former agent who earlier testified against the ex-minister admitted he had fabricated evidence. Tomaszewski, a veteran of the anti-Communist Solidarity trade union which he had joined in 1980, was forced by his party, the Solidarity Election Action (AWS), to resign from his post after the allegations surfaced. "The court's decision is a very bad one from the viewpoint of Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek and [AWS leader] Marian Krzaklewski, because it shows that they had done an innocent man wrong," said Zbigniew Siemiatkowski from the opposition Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who once also faced the probe of the Screening Court said, "From the start I felt that this case was not about screening, but rather an expulsion from AWS." Tomaszewski, meanwhile, said he would make a pilgrimage to the Czestochowa shrine to thank God for his exoneration. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p.1, Reuters) T.J.