The World - News from March 23, 1989

Poland’s chief government spokesman apologized to four opposition intellectuals who sued for slander after he linked them to a U.S. diplomat accused of spying. Jerzy Urban’s apology was read in court and the case was settled when the group agreed to accept the apology. The four--Janusz Onyszkiewicz, spokesman for the banned trade union Solidarity; historian Bronislaw Geremek; philosophy professor Klemens Szaniawski, and sociology professor Magdalena Sokolowska--filed suit after a 1987 news conference at which Urban accused them of having contacts with U.S. diplomat Albert Mueller. U.S. officials said the accusation of spying against the diplomat was false.