Screening Court finds Jozef Oleksy guilty of denying espionage charges

The Screening Court has found Jozef Oleksy former Prime Minister, former Communist, and current member of Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), guilty of lying when he declared he had never collaborated with the Communist secret police. According to the judge, he consciously collaborated with military intelligence between 1970 and 1978. Oleksy denied any ties with Communistic intelligence services and called the verdict "ignominious." According to the court, which is in possession of incriminating evidence, Oleksy came into contact with military intelligence in 1969 and his collaboration began in 1970. Before it ended in 1978, intelligence officers had contacted Oleksy more than 20 times. At a press conference in the Sejm, the SLD representative said, "The whole trial was extremely humiliating. We had to deal with unfair treatment of the parties in the trial. This court did not look for truth, and thus the whole idea of screening was distorted. Boguslaw Nizienski [Public Interest Ombudsman] was constantly shouting at my attorney and telling him he talked too much, but the judge did not react to that." Oleksy has the right to appeal. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p.5; Zycie, pp.1,4)