Jaruzelski faces anti-Solidarity charges

WARSAW, Poland, March 31 (UPI) -- Prosecutors have filed charges against Poland's last communist leader Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski for his martial-law crackdown on Solidarity unions.

Jaruzelski imposed martial law in 1981 to stop anti-communist government activities by the Solidarity trade unions, led by Lech Walesa.

The charges were filed by the Institute of National Remembrance, which investigates Nazi- and communist-era crimes, the BBC reported.

Jaruzelski is expected to go on trial soon.

The charges cover the March 1981-December 1982 period when the Jaruzelski regime organized "crimes of a military nature."

Jaruzelski argued that toppling the communist government by protesters of the Solidarity's 10 million members would have led to civil war and Soviet intervention.

Later, Poland's parliament cleared Jaruzelski of responsibility for the deaths resulting from martial law.

Under Walesa's leadership, Solidarity survived underground activities to negotiate the end of communism in Poland in 1989.