General Taduesz Tuczapski, a former Deputy Minister of National Security, accused of introducing martial law in Poland and ordering the massacre of Polish workers in 1970, has died at the age of 87.

Tadeusz Tuczapski in the years 1981-1983 was a member of the Military Council of National Salvation (WRON), a dictatorship government which administrated in the communist Poland during the martial law.

The other notable members of the council were Wojciech Jaruzelski, Czeslaw Kiszczak and Stanislaw Kania. 

In 2006 the Main Committee for Prosecuting Crime against Polish Nation, operating at the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), accused Tuczapski, and the other WRON members of committing a communist crime by introducing the martial law and ordering the massacre of workers in December 1970.

He denied the accusations and said that the martial law was “an absolute necessity”. 

Several days ago the Regional Court in Warsaw excluded Tuczapski from the December 70’ trial because of his bad health condition. Tuczapski had an intracerebral haematoma, which affected his consciousness. (mg)