A Warsaw court decided today to initiate proceedings against a former ambassador of Israel for lying in a a vetting statement about cooperation with communist-era secret services.

Maciej Kozlowski, a high ranking diplomat in the Foreign Ministry, lied in his obligatory declaration concerning dealings with Communist-era Security Services, according to the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) which extensive powers in reviewing the declarations, drawing on surviving secret police file archives.

In November 2009, the so-called ‘lustration’ office at the IPN in Warsaw claimed that during the years 1965-1969, Kozlowski was a secret agent cooperating with the communists under the pseudonym of 'Witold.'

The diplomat denies that he was an agent.

Kozlowski served a jail sentence during the seventies after being accused by the communists of cooperation with the CIA.

Laws passed in 1997 and consolidated under President Kaczynski's government in 2007 enforce that all high-ranking civil servants and politicians must make a declaration regarding cooperation with Communist-era Security Services.

Maciej Kozlowski, who is also a historian, has served as ambassador to Israel (1999-2003) and he is currently vice director of the Foreign Office's Department of Africa and the Middle East.

An earlier case, brought forward in 2000, was discontinued. (nh/pg)


Source: PAP