Orders from above
Police agent confirms directive to kill priest

A secret police agent who served under Poland’s former Communist government has testified that the 1984 murder of a famous Catholic priest was done on orders of senior government leaders.

Grzegorz Piotrowski, the only one of four original defendants still in prison for the murder, said he could not implicate Communist-era Gen. Wladyslaw Ciaston, the former head of the Security Service, who is now on trial for the same crime. Ciaston is accused of ordering the murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, an outspoken supporter of the Solidarity movement.

Asked whether Ciaston was involved in the plot, Piotrowski told the six-judge panel: “I have no such information.” Ciaston, who could face life in prison if convicted, denies involvement. He was acquitted in 1994 for lack of evidence, but prosecutors persuaded an appeals court to order a retrial.

Piotrowski said his immediate superior, Col. Adam Pietruszka, was the main “decision-maker and dispatcher in the case.” Piotrowski recalled how he and Pietruszka discussed plans to abduct and beat Father Popieluszko to terrify and silence the priest. Piotrowski said he was convinced the plan to silence the priest was approved by top police officials, including then-Interior Minister Czeslaw Kiszczak. He added that he felt that the decision was made at a level higher than Kiszczak.

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