AP

Polish leader donates to Ukraine army to end defamation case

Jan 31, 2023, 11:46 AM | Updated: Feb 1, 2023, 3:39 am

FILE - Radek Sikorski, a former Polish foreign ministers, speaks to The Associated Press in Warsaw,...

FILE - Radek Sikorski, a former Polish foreign ministers, speaks to The Associated Press in Warsaw, Poland, on Monday May 16, 2016. The Polish ruling party leader Kaczynski, has paid 50,000 zlotys ($11,500) to the Ukrainian army to settle a defamation case with Radek Sikorski, a member of the European Parliament who is a political rival in Poland. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)

(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Polish ruling party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has paid 50,000 zlotys ($11,500) for the needs of the Ukrainian army to settle a defamation case with a political rival.

Kaczynski was ordered by a court in December to pay Radek Sikorski more than 700,000 zlotys ($162,000) to cover the costs of publishing an apology for calling him a “diplomatic traitor.”

Kaczynski made the comment in 2016 in connection to the 2010 plane crash near Smolensk, Russia, that killed Kaczynski’s twin brother, then-President Lech Kaczynski, and 95 others. Sikorski was foreign minister at the time of the disaster and is now a member of the European Parliament and an outspoken government critic.

Sikorski belongs to Civic Platform, a party that has been in opposition since 2015. Kaczynski has long accused Civic Platform leaders of having a role in his brother’s death, a claim not substantiated by investigations to date.

Kaczynski said the court’s penalty was so high that he would have to sell his house to pay it, and that even then he might not have enough.

Sikorski replied by saying he believed “that the penalties for defamation should be severe but not ruinous.” He said if Kaczynski paid 50,000 zlotys for Ukraine’s armed forces he would refrain from demanding an apology.

Kaczynski said in a statement on Tuesday that he had paid the money.

“Today Ukraine is fighting for its independence and freedom, but also for our security. We support it and we will support it. Since the payment to support the fund for the Ukrainian Armed Forces closes my controversial dispute with Sikorski, I do so with satisfaction,” Kaczynski said in a statement published on Twitter.

Sikorski said he accepted that form of apology, adding “I’m glad we found a patriotic solution.”

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