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Lech Kaczyński's body among first to be exhumed: party leader

PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea 16.10.2016 10:18
The body of President Lech Kaczyński, who died in the Smolensk presidential plane crash in 2010, will be among the first to be exhumed, said his twin brother Jarosław.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org/CC0

Speaking with the Onet website, Jarosław Kaczyński, the head of the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, was asked whether families should have a say in the decision to exhume.

He said that the decision should be left to the prosecutor's office, and he saw no reason to suspect it should be different in this time round.

“I agree with the decision to exhume [the bodies]. In the case of my brother, some dates have already been discussed. It will be one of the first if not the very first exhumation,” Kaczyński said.

The crash in western Russia ion 10 April 2010 saw the death of 96 people, including many top military and government officials.

The Polish report on the causes of the tragedy, which happened in dense fog on approach to a military airfield lacking ground identification radar, cited a catalogue of errors on the Polish side, while also pointing to errors made by Russian staff at the control tower of the Smolensk military airport. The Russian report placed all the blame on the Poles.

In his interview with Onet, Kaczyński said that the “investigation by the previous government was a scandal, for which many people should face the legal consequences.”

He had earlier suggested that charges could be brought against then-Prime Minister Donald Tusk over his handling of investigation in the aftermath of the crash.

Kaczyński said that: “Following the transfer of the bodies to Poland, the most elementary steps were not taken. Inspection of the bodies, the autopsies. They lied that this was due to sanitary reasons. Meanwhile, all the soldiers who died on foreign missions, had autopsies upon arrival of the body to Poland. What happened after the [Smolensk] crash was one big, gigantic scandal.”

Poland has set up a new commission to investigate the causes of the crash. (rg)

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