Poland: The Show Trial That Fizzled

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Inside the Gdansk courtroom, the judge began trial proceedings last week with a few routine questions. He asked the defendant's profession (electromechanic); his salary ($85 a month); and if he had any decorations. He did, including the Nobel Prize for Peace, and he had once been the leader of the banned Solidarity trade union. The defendant, Lech Walesa, was in court to answer charges that he had slandered members of several regional electoral commissions. His alleged crime: issuing estimates of voter turnout in Poland's parliamentary balloting last October that were lower than government figures.

Presumably, the regime of General Wojciech Jaruzelski had hoped that it could intimidate Walesa and his followers. But the Warsaw government backtracked when it became clear that the trial was turning out more absurd than intimidating. Invited by the judge to find an amicable solution, the state prosecutor offered to withdraw the charges if Walesa would make a statement that satisfied the commission members. Responded Walesa: "I had no intention of humiliating anyone." With that, the case was dismissed. Walesa noted that the compromise outcome was a "sign of hope."