Tusk accountable for Smolensk: Polish defence minister
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
02.06.2017 10:03
Former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is legally accountable for the 2010 Polish presidential plane crash in Smolensk, western Russia, Poland's defence minister has said.
The wreckage of the presidential plane in 2010. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz said that in May 2010, a month after the crash, the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party asked parliament to vote on whether Poland should take over an investigation into the incident.
“We begged members of parliament... Everyone voted no,” Macierewicz said.
“Their moral and political responsibility is obvious. The legal [responsibility] of Mr Donald Tusk too, in my opinion,” Macierewicz said.
Since coming to power in 2015, PiS has launched its own investigation into the crash.
The Polish plane crashed while landing in fog, killing then-President Lech Kaczyński, who hailed from the PiS party, his wife, and 94 others, many of them top government and military officials.
PiS, headed by the late president's twin brother Jarosław Kaczyński, has long challenged an official report into the crash 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 currently serves as head of the European Council. (vb/pk)
Source: PAP