Friday, May 16, 2008 - 13:30
AFP News Briefs ListGorbachev blasts Jaruzelski trial as 'persecution'
Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has refused to testify in the trial of Poland's last communist leader, blasting the court case as "baseless persecution" in an interview published Friday.
"What is going on with him now is persecution, and it is baseless persecution," Gorbachev told the daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta, the official newspaper of the Russian government.
His comments came two days after a Polish court ordered prosecutors to question Gorbachev in the trial of General Wojciech Jaruzelski, who stands accused of "communist crimes" for declaring martial law in the country in 1981.
Gorbachev stressed Jaruzelski's old age and poor health and called the trial "an attempt to distract attention" from other political issues in Poland.
The former Soviet leader said he had already written to the judges and to Poland's parliament about the trial.
On Wednesday, a Warsaw tribunal ordered prosecutors investigating Jaruzelski to question Gorbachev and other top Cold War figures, including former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
The tribunal was acting on a request from defence lawyers for Jaruzelski and two co-defendants.
Thousands of arrests followed the 1981 crackdown. Jaruzelski, was leader of communist Poland at the time.
