Smolensk probe: ex-PM Tusk summoned to Warsaw

Tusk, Poland's prime minister at the time of the disaster, will be heard as a witness in a probe into possible negligence by Polish public officials who allegedly did not ask Russian authorities to allow a Polish team to conduct autopsies on the crash victims, a spokesperson for the prosecution said.

In 2011, Russian medical records were called into question, and nine exhumations showed that parts of six bodies had been placed in the wrong graves.

Experts at the time concluded that up to 90 percent of the medical records compiled by the Russians were wrong.

Last month Tusk was heard as a witness as prosecutors looked into suspected abuse of power and negligence at Poland’s Military Counterintelligence Service, which allegedly collaborated with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

On 10 April, 2010, a Polish presidential plane crashed in Smolensk, western Russia, killing all 96 on board, including then-President Lech Kaczyński and dozens of other top political and military personnel.

The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, headed by the twin of the late president, launched a new investigation into the crash after coming to power in late 2015, having long challenged an official report into the disaster, issued by the previous Polish government, which cited 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.

A Russian report placed all the blame on the Poles.

Tusk is expected to be questioned on 5 July.

The probe into negligence is just one of seven lines of inquiry being pursued in addition to the main investigation. (vb/pk)

Source: PAP