Updated

Poland's ruling anti-communist party has faced bitter accusations of inconsistency over a prominent role that a communist-era prosecutor has in the party leadership.

At the heart of the controversy, ruling Law and Justice party lawmaker Stanislaw Piotrowicz denied Wednesday he ever charged or persecuted any pro-democracy activists when he was a high-ranking prosecutor and communist party member under communist-imposed martial law in the 1980s. He insisted that he helped Solidarity activists.

The TVN24 station has shown an indictment against a Solidarity activist, Antoni Pikula, signed by Piotrowicz.

Opposition lawmakers have asked an ethics commission to punish Piotrowicz for denying facts, and questioned the ruling conservative party's moral standards.

Law and Justice has made it a priority to condemn communism, ousted in 1989, and to remove from public life communist-era activists.