Polish prosecutor receives letters against Smolensk exhumations
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
25.11.2016 08:19
Poland’s state prosecutor’s office has received 20 letters objecting to the exhumation of Smolensk disaster victims’ bodies since they started last week.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org/CC0
On 14 November, the bodies of the presidential couple, who were among 96 on board the plane that crashed while landing in fog in Smolensk, in western Russia on 10 April 2010, were exhumed.
Another body was exhumed on Tuesday and a fourth on Thursday in a new probe into the causes of the crash.
A spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office said the letters were complaints, objections and requests for repeal of the decision to exhume the bodies.
“All these letters are being replied to,” she said, adding that they also receive information about their legal rights.
She added that the prosecutor’s office has also received other letters requesting exhumations to be carried out as quickly as possible.
A further six exhumations are expected to be carried out by the end of the year, while the remainder of the 83 planned exhumations are set to take place until autumn and winter 2017.
An earlier investigation by Poland’s former government, called into question by the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, found a catalogue of errors on the Polish side, while also pointing to errors made by Russian staff at the control tower of Smolensk Military Airport.
The Russian report placed all the blame on the Poles. (vb/rg)
Source: PAP