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Ex-Polish PM Tusk ‘handed over’ plane crash probe to Russia: report

PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki 23.10.2017 14:50
Poland’s former Prime Minister Donald Tusk may have acted against the country's interests by letting Russia conduct an investigation into the fatal 2010 crash of the Polish presidential plane, a report has suggested.
Former Polish PM and European Council President Donald Tusk. Photo: EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQFormer Polish PM and European Council President Donald Tusk. Photo: EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ

Tusk needlessly “handed over” the investigation to Vladimir Putin's Russia directly after the disaster, the Do Rzeczy weekly magazine reported on Monday, citing a study it said Tusk’s aides commissioned in 2011.

The study in question, ordered by Tusk’s office as prime minister from K&L Gates law firm, found that Poland did not need to apply a law requiring it to hand over the probe to Russia, according to Do Rzeczy.

The weekly said that the study – mentioned in a note dated September 19, 2011 and sent by Tomasz Arabski, head of the Prime Minister’s Office under Tusk, to the Warsaw district prosecutor's office -- was among new documents it had accessed.

The documents cited by Do Rzeczy are part of evidence collected in an ongoing investigation into suspected "diplomatic treason" that is being conducted alongside a main probe into the causes of the April 10, 2010 crash of the Polish presidential plane near Smolensk, western Russia, the weekly said.

'Passive executor of Russian orders'

According to Do Rzeczy, the document in question shows that for a few weeks after the Smolensk disaster, Tusk's men did not conduct any legal analysis and that Poland was a result reduced to the role of a "passive executor of Russian orders."

Do Rzeczy also said that it was not until many weeks after the tragedy that Tusk's co-workers began ordering legal studies related to the case, but by then “all the evidence had been taken over and secured by the Russians.”

In March, Poland’s defence minister Antoni Macierewicz notified prosecutors that Tusk allegedly acted against the country's interests following the 2010 Smolensk disaster.

Tusk, who is now president of the European Council of heads of EU states, is alleged to have acted to Poland’s detriment by applying an annex to the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation in a probe into the 2010 presidential plane crash, causing a Polish investigation to be limited as a result. (gs/pk)

Source: TVP Info, PAP, Do Rzeczy

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