Priest beaten, bound before dying

Press, 6 November 1984, Page 8

Priest beaten, bound before dying

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw The anti-Communist Polish priest, Father Jerzy Popieluszko, was beaten, gagged, and tied up before his body was dumped in a reservoir, say sources who atended his autopsy. The authorities have charged three security policemen with kidnapping Father Popieluszko, aged 37, in northern Poland last month. An Interior Ministry spokesman has said that they are expected to be formally accused soon of killing him. Details of the autopsy have not been officially released. A priest at the residence of Poland’s Primate, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, said that the full results of the post-mortem examination would not be publicly issued. The sources, who at-

tended the autopsy in the north-eastern town of Bialystok on October 30, said yesterday that evidence showed Father Popieluszko had been tied up with a rope, apparently from neck to feet so he would strangle himself if he tried to struggle. He had been gagged at the mouth. The sources said that his body bore bruises. They could not confirm reports quoting members of the priest’s family as saying that he had suffered injuries to his jaw and skull. The authorities have said that frogmen found Father Popieluszko’s corpse in a reservoir at Wloclawek, 130 km north-west of Warsaw, on October 30,12 days after he was abducted. The sources said that he had probably been alive but unconscious when he was

thrown into the reservoir. Some water had been found in his lungs. ' Family members, who identified the priest’s body at the Bialystok hospital, said that it was covered with cuts and bruises. Doctors had been unable to proceed with an identification based on dental records because his jaw had been shattered and his teeth smashed, the family said. Bones in his hands were broken, as though he had tried to protect his face from blows, and his scalp had been tom, they said. His killers had tied a bag filled with stones around his neck before dumping the body in the Vistula River. It was not clear how long Father Popieluszko suffered at the hands of his kidnappers, or whether he died the day of his abduction.