A Polish court reopened the trial today of the country's last communist leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, charged with responsibility for a massacre of protesting shipyard workers in 1970.
Attempts to try the elderly general have been repeatedly delayed by his frail health and defence motions for more evidence to back charges that his orders lead to 44 deaths during a popular revolt against price rises.
Gen Jaruzelski, who was defence minister in 1970 and became Communist Party leader in 1981, denies any wrongdoing. He has said his deeds should be judged by history as no court can grasp the complexity of Poland's situation under Soviet domination.
Gen Jaruzelski, now 78 and suffering from kidney disease, imposed martial law in 1981 to crush Solidarity, the Soviet bloc's first free trade union.
Eight years later, he authorised round-table talks in 1989 with the opposition which peacefully dismantled communist rule in Poland and helped end the Cold War.
There is little public support in Poland for prosecuting former communist bosses. The party of reformed communist won general elections in September, ousting from parliament many politicians rooted in the pre-1989 opposition.