Poland Accuses U.S. Embassy Aide of Espionage

The Polish government on Friday accused a U.S. diplomat of espionage and said he received information from a Pole arrested on charges of passing military intelligence to the United States.

The diplomat was identified by the official PAP news agency as Stephen Donald Mull, a second secretary in the political section of the U.S. Embassy, who has been based in Poland for two years.

PAP’s report said Mull was a “staffer of U.S. intelligence known for his ‘extra-diplomatic’ interests and lively contacts with the anti-state opposition in Poland.”

Reports by PAP and state television did not say whether Mull would be expelled. Embassy press officer Paul Smith said he had no comment.

PAP identified the arrested Pole as Bogdan Charyton, and said he was a 44-year-old Warsaw physiotherapist charged with spying for the United States. Charyton passed on political and military intelligence beginning in 1981 while he was abroad, the agency said.

In an interview broadcast on state television, a man identified as Charyton acknowledged meeting Mull in Warsaw.

PAP said Mull had contacts with two advisers to Solidarity founder Lech Walesa, Father Henryk Jankowski and Bronislaw Geremek. He also allegedly met with Jacek Leskow, a mathematician and former member of the Solidarity students union.

Since the arrest of Solidarity underground leader Zbigniew Bujak on May 31, the government has leveled several allegations against the United States, claiming that Washington received secrets from the leaders of the outlawed union.

Friday night’s television report broadcast videotape of man it said was Mull meeting in a street with a man it identified as Leskow and receiving a small package. The tape appeared to have been filmed clandestinely.

It also broadcast photographs of Mull with Jankowski and Geremek.

PAP said “documents related to the person of S.D. Mull” and illegal publications were found in Leskow’s apartment.