Trial of former leader Jaruzelski on massacre charges finally gets under way
A court yesterday reopened the trial of the country's last communist leader,
General Wojciech Jaruzelski. Along with six former ministers and army
officers, Jaruzelski is charged with responsibility for the massacre of
protesting shipyard workers in 1970. Attempts to try the elderly general
have been repeatedly delayed by his frail health and motions by his lawyers
for more evidence to back charges that his orders as Defense Minister led to
44 deaths during a popular revolt against price rises. Denying any
wrongdoing, Jaruzelski claims that no court could grasp the complexity of
Poland's situation under Soviet domination. Jaruzelski is now 78, and
suffering from kidney disease. (Reuters)
