Former military intelligence officer sentenced on espionage charges

Monika Scislowska

Monday, May 22, 2000 | 9:05 a.m.

WARSAW, Poland - A three-judge military court on Monday convicted a former regional head of military intelligence in Poland of spying for Moscow and sentenced him to four years in prison.

Chief Judge Maj. Miroslaw Jaroszewski said the defendant damaged Poland by passing secret information to the KGB between 1988 and 1993.

The trial of the retired officer, who had pleaded innocent, opened in December and was closed to the media and public. The defendant's name was not made public; media reports identified him as Czeslaw W.

Authorities have indicated there was no evidence Czeslaw W. was paid for spying, and a newspaper report suggested he collaborated with Moscow for ideological reasons.

The trial indicated the difficulties across the former East Bloc in dealing with the legacy of communism. Many Polish army officers are holdovers from the communist era, when Poland was part of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.

The retired officer was arrested a year ago after the Zycie newspaper reported Poland's secret service had evidence that three army colonels had spied for Moscow.

Officials reportedly delayed arresting the officers to protect a Russian agent who was helping Poland investigate other espionage allegations. But pressure to arrest all three increased after Poland joined NATO in 1999.

According to Zycie, Czeslaw W. was recruited by Soviet intelligence when he studied at a Moscow military academy in the early 1980s. He retired from the military in 1994.

Trials have not yet opened against the other two men.