A Polish military court has issued an European arrest warrant for the 88-year-old widow of an Oxford University professor on charges that she sent a war hero to his death.

Now a British citizen living in Oxford, Helena Wolinska is accused of masterminding the false arrest and execution of a Polish war hero in the notorious show trials of the country's Stalinist era.

General Emil Fieldorf known by the alias Nil, was the Home Army leader. After the war, he refused to collaborate with the secret service of the new communist regime.

In 1952 he was charged with killing Soviet soldiers and anti-Nazi fighters from Poland's communist underground and was executed a year later. Wolinska has been accused of fabricating the charges.

As a military prosecutor it is alleged that she also arranged for the wrongful arrest of 24 others. If convicted she faces 10 years in prison.

Mrs Wolinska has lived in Britain since 1972 and was married to economist Wlodzimierz Brus, a professorial fellow at Wolfson College, who died in August this year.

From her home in Oxford she said: "I will not speak about this because it is not a criminal case it is a political one. I don't know why the whole business is coming up again. This is an old case, it is 10 years old."

An extradition request made by the Polish government in 2000, before the country joined the EU, was turned down by the UK.

But now the country is part of the union permission to extradite an individual is not required and a court in Warsaw has now issued a European Arrest Warrant for Mrs Wolinska.

Responsibility for making the arrest lies with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca). A spokeswoman said: "We never confirm details of arrest warrants."

The Metropolitan Police and the Home Office both said the warrant was a matter for Soca and, as such, they could not comment.