Military authorities charge 66 with theft of arms and ammunition

According to prosecutors, 66 people were involved in stealing 600 grenades and thousands of rounds of ammunition from the stocks of the Polish Navy. Among the suspects are 51 soldiers and 15 civilians. It is expected that 25 of them will face further charges in court. Yesterday, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski suspended the chief of Navy logistics while the commander of the Gdynia naval base, deputy commander of the Naval Academy and chief of the technical division of the University have already been suspended. Military Police are still looking for some missing weaponry, though luckily most of the equipment has already been found. Army prosecutors claim that there is no evidence that any of the suspects have connections with the criminal world. "'It is a miracle that nothing terrible happened," said a spokesperson of the Army Prosecutor in Gdynia, Marek Majewski. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A4) M.M.