A Polish court has sentenced former President Lech Walesa to apologize to the head of the ruling PiS party Jaroslaw Kaczynski. However, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate did not have to pay the Nobel Peace Prize money demanded in the defamation trial because of the death of Kaczynski's twin brother in 2010, the judge of a district court in Gdansk decided on Thursday. The two opponents were not present.
The dispute is about a Facebook entry by Walesa, in which he accused Kaczynski of being responsible for the plane disaster eight years ago. In the disaster, his brother and head of state Lech Kaczynski and 95 other people were killed.
Kaczynski did not fail to accuse Walesa of an "intellectual deficit" during the trial and described it as a "threat to democracy in Poland". Former Solidarnosc leader Walesa accused his adversary of having "arranged" the risky landing approach in Smolensk, Russia, during his last phone call with his brother aboard the plane despite extreme weather conditions.
Kaczynski demanded from Walesa an apology and 30,000 zloty (7,000 euros) compensation for pain, to pay to a charitable institution. The Kaczynski twins were close allies of Wales between 1989 and 1991 when this president was. When Walesa later moved away from them, they reproached him several times the cooperation with the communist secret police SB.