Lech Walesa sues Poland's president

Lech Walesa, the Solidarity founder and the former president of Poland, is suing president Lech Kaczynski, who alleged Walesa was a secret informer of the Polish communist secret police.

Lech Walesa, a Nobel Prize laureate, is demanding that Lech Kaczynski apologize and pay 100,000 zloty ($37,000) damages. In a 2008 TV interview Kaczynski said that Walesa was an agent codenamed Bolek, cooperating with the Communist internal intelligence agency and secret police, Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa (SB). In 2005, Walesa received status of victim from the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). He then announced that he would sue anyone who accuses him of being an agent. The Warsaw court began hearing on Nov. 24. As Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reports, Kaczynski's lawyer demanded rejection of the application, because in his view only the State Tribunal is qualified to settle the cases for the nation's president. Another Polish paper, Polska, reports that the court listened to the 2008 TV interview wanting to determine whether of Lech Kaczynski's statement was a private opinion or a president. The court postponed the process until Dec. 18. The trial continues.