President wins libel trial against newspaper but editor says he will appeal

President Aleksander Kwasniewski yesterday won a long-running libel case against Zycie daily which in 1997 alleged that between Aug. 5-15, 1994 the incumbent President while on vacation met with Russian spy Vladimir Alganov. The President sued the newspaper, demanding an apology and zl. 2.5 million in compensation to go to flood victims. The court decided there are no grounds for assuming in August 1994 Kwasniewski had vacationed at the seaside resort of Cetniewo, as Zycie had alleged. The paper's editor Tomasz Wolek condemned the verdict as a scandalous abuse of press freedom and said the paper would immediately appeal the verdict. The court decided Zycie must only apologize to the President, without paying compensation, as Kwasniewski 's popularity did not suffer as a result of the publication of the information. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 1, Reuters) T.J.