Law and Justice's leader Jarosław Kaczyński and former President of Poland Lech Wałęsa met in court on Thursday. Kaczyński has sued Wałęsa for violation of his personal rights, by accusing him of being responsible for the Smoleńsk plane crash, which took the lives of 96 people, including Kaczyński's brother Lech, former Polish president. Former political allies and today's enemies didn't shake hands when facing each other in front of the court room. Verdict is expected to be read out on the 6th of December.
Bitter political rivals, Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the Polish ruling party, and former President, Lech Wałęsa faced each other in court on Thursday over Wałęsa's comment blaming Kaczyński for the plane crash which killed 96 top Polish officials.
The plane crashed in thick fog near the Russian city of Smolensk in 2010. The dead included Kaczyński's twin brother Lech Kaczyński, the then President of Poland as well as top army brass, the central bank chief and lawmakers from across the political spectrum.
Kaczyński, leader of the ruling party Law and Justice (PiS), has sued Wałęsa, founder of the Solidarity movement, for posting a comment on a social media website which said that Kaczyński, talking to his brother over the phone during the flight, bullied him to order the plane to land despite bad weather conditions.
Wałęsa stood by his comment and said it was part if a political discourse.
Hostility between Wałęsa and the Kaczyński brothers dates back to the early 1990s.
Wałęsa was Poland's first fully democratically elected president after World War Two at the time, and Kaczyński brothers were close aides. But they fell out over Wałęsa's refusal to abandon painful free-market reforms during his five-year term.
The twins' political allies have since blamed economic policies in the early 1990s for the hardships experienced by many Poles when communist-era industries were being closed down or privatised.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, PAP, Reuters
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: PAP