12 Held in Poland Detention Protest
Police arrested 12 people who staged a demonstration outside a prison in the southwest city of Wroclaw on Tuesday calling for the release of Polish political prisoners.
The arrests coincided with a joint appeals for the release of political prisoners by 530 intellectuals, including Marek Edelman, a surviving leader of the World War II Warsaw Jewish Ghetto uprising against the Nazis.
Dissident sources said the 12 arrested in Wroclaw included seven activists of the outlawed Solidarity union and five others. They were detained while holding banners in front of the local jail reading, “Free All Political Prisoners.”
Sources said that there are currently about 250 political prisoners--a category not officially recognized by the goverment--in Polish jails and that one of Solidarity’s leading Wroclaw region activists, Wladyslaw Frasyniuk was currently serving a 3 1/2-year term in Wroclaw jail for “anti-state” activity.
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