The former general who imposed martial law on communist Poland in 1981 denied criminal guilt at his trial. However, there was little evident resentment as he argued that he saved the nation from a Soviet invasion. 

Taking the stand Thursday, General Wojciech Jaruzelski was frail but firm as he defended the crackdown - which ultimately failed to break the Solidarity trade union - and, in effect, sought to portray himself as a Polish patriot. 

A few dozen people attended the session at Warsaw District Court, where the 85-year-old Jaruzelski walked in slowly, sat down behind a microphone, then read a 
200-page statement over several hours. 

Many in the audience felt pity as they watched the ailing general coughing or pausing his testimony to take sips from his thermos. 

Wearing the trademark dark glasses he needs due to an eye condition, Jaruzelski excused himself several times, saying he was taking antibiotics. 

"This is an embarrassment," said Colonel Jan Prochniewski, one of several elderly military men who came to show support for the general. 

"To judge a person who didn't let the country erupt into civil war. How can it not be shameful to put someone as old as him on the stand - at his age?" 

Prosecutors allege Jaruzelski led a "criminal armed organization" when he and other leaders created the emergency ruling body under martial law. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison. 

No ex-communist Polish leaders have been convicted of crimes in the 1981 crackdown, when up to 100 people are believe to have died and thousands of Solidarity activists and other dissidents were jailed. 

Jaruzelski called the charges "baseless" and said martial law was needed to avoid a Soviet-bloc invasion. He argued it was a "hard decision," but not a criminal one. 

Even former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, the shipyard worker who won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize and later became Poland's first post- communist president, has made a kind of peace with his former enemy. 

Walesa shook hands with the general in July at another trial where Jaruzelski was charged with ordering a 1970s massacre of protesters. 

"He's guilty in some way," Walesa said at the time, "but political factors counted back then." 

Time might not heal all the wounds, but many now feel the process has dragged on for too long and Jaruzelski should have been tried decades ago. 

At Thursday's session, there were no former union leaders calling for revenge, nor tearful families of victims. 

Many who lived through the 1980s and the Cold War have lost interest as attempts to find legal closure for killings under communism dragged on. 

Beyond that, there also is understanding for Jaruzelski's dilemma. 

"He was a cog in the machine," said a 72-year-old man attending the trial who once printed leaflets for Solidarity when it was outlawed. 

"Looking at the Soviet Army, he had to do something, and they didn't think about whether it was right or wrong."