Lepper charged with libel and slander

The Warsaw district prosecutor's office charged Samoobrona party leader Andrzej Lepper with six counts of libel and one of slander on Tuesday. If found guilty, the former deputy Sejm speaker could be sentenced to up to two years in prison. Five of the charges concern Lepper's statement in the Sejm on November 29 of last year, when he accused five politicians from the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and Civic Platform (PO) of bribery. On November 23, Lepper called Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz's father "a criminal who had killed Poles," and the minister himself "scum." The prosecution's charges against Lepper were made possible after the Sejm annulled his parliamentary immunity on January 25. Upon leaving the prosecutor's office, Lepper said that the case was political, illegal and controlled "from above." (Rzeczpospolita, p. A3) M.T.