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New report on 2010 Polish presidential jet crash to come next year: head of probe

07.11.2019 16:00
The head of a commission reinvestigating the fatal 2010 crash of Polish presidential plane in Russia has said that a new report is set to be made public early next year.
The site of the Polish presidential plane crash in 2010.
The site of the Polish presidential plane crash in 2010.OTRS [CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)]

Senior conservative politician Antoni Macierewicz told public broadcaster Polish Radio on Thursday that his goal was to clarify the causes of the plane crash that killed Poland’s president and 95 others.

Macierewicz said in April that a probe had shown those on board died as a result of an explosion.

Last week, a group of Polish prosecutors in Russia finished re-examining the presidential jet wreckage, state news agency PAP reported.

PAP quoted “unofficial” reports as saying that Polish prosecutors gathered data for US experts, who have teamed up with Polish authorities on an investigation.

The 2010 crash scarred the national psyche and is still a source of controversy and recrimination in Poland.

Last year, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly called on Russia to hand over the wreckage of the crashed plane to the Polish authorities “without further delay” and in a manner that “avoids any further deterioration” of potential evidence.

Russia has refused to return the wreckage, including the plane’s black boxes, to Poland, claiming that it is continuing to investigate the crash.

Poland’s ruling conservatives have long challenged an official report into the causes of the disaster issued by the previous 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.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of 2017 denied Polish suggestions that the 2010 air crash was the result of a Russian conspiracy.

(jh/pk)

Source: PAP