Poland's former president, Mr Lech Walesa, who led the Solidarity movement that brought down the communist regime more than a decade ago, will be in court today to answer allegations that he spied for the communist secret police in the 1970s.
Mr Walesa's appearance comes two days after Poland's current president, Mr Aleksander Kwasniewski, was cleared of spying during the 1980s when he worked as a journalist.
Mr Walesa and Mr Kwasniewski, both candidates in Poland's presidential election later this year, have been accused of failing to disclose their co-operation with the intelligence services in a declaration each candidate is required to make. There is no sanction against a candidate who admits working with the secret police, but any politician who is found to have lied can be barred from holding public office for 10 years.
The case against Mr Walesa rests on secret police files about an informant code-named "Bolek", who was active between 1970 and 1976. The former president's name appeared in 1992 on a list alleging that 64 politicians were former collaborators, but he has always dismissed the charge.
Many Poles are troubled by the activities of the "vetting court" and its reliance on secret police files, a notoriously unreliable source. Mr Walesa is threatening to take a civil action against Poland's last communist leader, Gen Wojciech Jaruzelski, whom he accuses of creating the agent "Bolek" to discredit him.
A poll last year showed most Poles support the process of exposing former collaborators, but one taken last week showed that more than two-thirds now believe the process is being manipulated by the secret police (UOP).
The UOP came under blistering criticism for suspected partisanship in submitting the documents against Mr Kwasniewski in the final weeks of the campaign despite the fact that the president had filed his statement two years ago. The UOP answers to the government of the Prime Minister, Mr Jerzy Buzek, a representative of the AWS-Solidarity grouping of Catholic and right-wing parties, while Mr Kwasniewski is a member of the Democratic Left Alliance.
A parliamentary committee rebuked the UOP for publicly accusing Mr Kwasniewski of being a collaborator - a conclusion only the court can make - but stopped short of saying it broke the law.
Mr Kwasniewski, a former communist, is the clear favourite to win the presidential election, while Mr Walesa's support is measured in single digits.
