Policeman questioned about priest

Press, 26 October 1984, Page 8

Policeman questioned about priest

NZPA-AP Warsaw Poland’s Communist authorities have arrested a Warsaw policeinan in connection with the abduction of a pro-Solidarity Catholic priest six days ago. The announcement of the arrest, the first in connection with the kidnapping, came yesterday as the Solidarity leader, Lech Walesa, and the union’s underground leadership issued a statement condemning the activities of the Polish police. “A state in which law and

order is commonly broken, in which security forces serve only the interests of the authorities and are not submitted to any social control” may lead to “unpredictable results,” the statement said. “Victims of martial law, killed or repressed by alleged defenders of righteousness in strikes, peaceful manifestations in churches, are now joined by a priest kidnapped by ‘unknown’ perpetrators,” it said. The statement charged that communist authorities

bore responsibility for the abduction of the priest, the Rev. Jerzy Popieluszko of Warsaw. “This kidnapping is not an isolated event. The responsibility for the results of the existing situation will lie with the authorities,” it said. There was still no word on the whereabouts of Father Popieluszko, aged 37, who frequently defended the ideals of the outlawed Solidarity union in his sermons. The policeman, identified

as Grzegorz P., was placed under arrest for “wilfully absenting himself from his job” and failing to provide an adequate alibi for missing work on Saturday, the day Father Popieluszko disappeared on a northern Poland highway, State-run television reported. The policeman was identified by the official Polish news agency, Pap, as a member of the Interior Ministry, which controls Poland’s Police Force and internal security service.