By Monika Scislowska
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2000; 11:22 p.m. EDT

WARSAW, Poland –– A special court found Wednesday that former Prime Minister Jozef Oleksy, who resigned in 1996 amid allegations he had spied for Moscow, worked as a military intelligence agent in communist Poland.

The decision means Oleksy, a former communist, must forfeit his seat in Poland's parliament unless he wins an appeal.

Oleksy repeatedly has denied the spying charges, and he vehemently protested Wednesday's decision. He says the charges were motivated by a desire for political revenge by supporters of Solidarity founder Lech Walesa after Walesa lost the presidency to an ex-communist challenger in 1995.

A military prosecutor decided in 1996 there was insufficient evidence for a criminal probe, but the case languished until the advent of Poland's new screening law in 1998.

The law requires top public officials to submit statements disclosing whether they ever collaborated with the secret services. There is no penalty for collaboration, but anyone deemed by the screening court to have lied is barred from public office for 10 years.

The court, which began reviewing Oleksy's case in June 1999, said he had worked periodically between 1970 and 1978 as an agent for the military intelligence service.

"I totally disagree with the court's verdict, and I find it shameful," said Oleksy, who was present for the verdict. "I think that truth is losing out in this persistent desire to convict people."

Walesa's supporters had accused Oleksy of passing information to Moscow as late as 1994. The court did not mention those charges, confining itself to the narrow determination that Oleksy lied when he denied any past collaboration in his screening statement.