Colonel Cries Smear at Polish Trial

A Polish secret police major testified Friday that his superior ordered the destruction of evidence implicating him in the murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko. Infuriated by the testimony, the accused officer rose in court and screamed that he was being smeared.

The outburst came in the trial of four secret police officers accused in the kidnaping and killing Oct. 19 of Popieluszko, an ardent supporter of the banned Solidarity trade union.

Police Maj. Janusz Drozdz testified that Col. Adam Pietruszka ordered the destruction of evidence that incriminated him in the slaying of the priest and lied about his involvement in the crime.

Drozdz told the court that after the priest was killed, a deputy interior minister ordered employees to submit written statements of their whereabouts on the day of the crime to the police commander, Gen. Zenon Platek.

But, he said, Pietruszka ordered that key passages incriminating him be erased.

Sections to Be Deleted

“Pietruszka looked through the statements before they were submitted. He said some were too long and underlined certain sections in them which he said had to be removed,” Drozdz said.

Pietruszka, white with anger at the testimony, rose to his feet in the courtroom and shouted: “This man is a sensationalist. He is conducting a smear campaign against me!”

The judge asked if he had evidence of such a campaign and he replied, “No, I have no material evidence to prove it.”

Pietruszka is charged with instigating the murder of Popieluszko, whose body was found in a reservoir of the Vistula River 11 days after he was snatched from a car outside the northern city of Torun.

Capt. Grzegorz Piotrowski and Lts. Waldemar Chmielewski and Leszek Pekala are accused of kidnaping, beating and killing Popieluszko. All four face possible death sentences.

During earlier testimony, Col. Pietruszka maintained that the captain carried out the crime on his own initiative. Pietruszka said he wanted to curb the activities of the priest but asserted that he never gave orders to use force.

But Drozdz testified that Pietruszka told his secretary, Barbara Story, to omit a key passage from her report to the general. Drozdz said the omitted passage read:

“On Oct, 19, when Grzegorz Piotrowski was leaving the office, he told me to tell anyone who was looking for him that Pietruszka would know where I am.”

Drozdz said Pietruszka lied to the general by denying that Popieluszko planned a visit to Gdansk on Oct. 13, the date of an aborted stoning attack on the priest’s car by the accused that was intended to force the vehicle to crash.

“I told Pietruszka that he lied,” Drozdz testified, adding: “Pietruszka twice reprimanded me and said, ‘You are busying the general with irrelevancies.’ ”