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‘Witness’ to Smolensk crash ‘ignored’?

PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea 12.05.2016 12:33
A possible witness to the 2010 plane crash which killed 96 people, including then Polish President Lech Kaczyński, was turned away by the Polish embassy in Russia, according to a top official.
The Polish embassy in Moscow. Photo: moskwa.msz.gov.plThe Polish embassy in Moscow. Photo: moskwa.msz.gov.pl

Mariusz Kamiński, the Special Services Coordinator, announced on Wednesday during the presentation of a report on the previous government’s eight years in power, that the Russian national who claimed to have been a witness of the crash was turned away by the Polish embassy in Moscow.

Kamiński added that he could have had “important information about the crash of the government plane”.

The topic was discussed by Mateusz Wąsik, a top aide at the Prime Minister’s office, in a Thursday-morning interview on broadcaster TVP Info.

“We do not know what happened to that person. The heads of the [Polish] Intelligence Agency decided not to cooperate and sent the intelligence to the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation,” Wąsik said, adding that the issue will be investigated by a prosecutor in Poland.

New investigation

The Polish conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government has reopened the investigation into the Smolensk plane crash in Russia of 2010, which saw the death of 96 people, including then-President Lech Kaczyński.

Earlier official Polish and Russian military reports were published on the causes of the tragedy, which happened in dense fog on approach to a military airfield lacking ground identification radar.

The Polish report 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. Meanwhile, the Russian report placed all the blame on the Poles.

The wreckage of the plane has never been handed over by Russia to Polish authorities. (rg)

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