There is only one document I admit to: ex-Solidarity leader Wałęsa

Wałesa said that among a file of documents found in the house of a former communist interior minister only one was authentic: a note that had been taken away from the former Solidarity leader's home by the communist secret police.

“In the ‘Bolek’ folder there is a document which I admit to. The rest must be discarded, because they are fake. Only this document has my signature,” Wałęsa said.

He added that all the other documents found in the file were fake. “I already have a list of counterfeiters who admit to faking these documents," he added.

On Wednesday, Wałęsa was questioned by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) over the documents, and shown the original copies.

In February, the IPN had claimed that recently-seized files concerning Wałęsa's alleged collaboration with the communist security services were genuine.

The documents were seized at the Warsaw house of Maria Teresa Kiszczak, widow of former communist Interior Minister Czesław Kiszczak.

The material, from the mid-1970s, concerns a secret informant codenamed “Bolek”, a figure that some historians insist is Lech Wałęsa, best known to the wider world as the one-time leader of the Solidarity trade union.

The chairman of IPN, Łukasz Kamiński, said that the documents include “a handwritten agreement to cooperate with the security services signed: Lech Wałesa - Bolek.”

Kamiński added that other documents signed with the codename Bolek include “confirmation of having received money”. (rg/pk)