Poland announces Russian forensic medical experts’ massive errors in Smolensk tragedy
90% of the Russian documentation pertaining to the forensic examination of the bodies recovered from the Smolensk plan crash contains errors. This was announced during a press conference on Wednesday by the deputy prosecutor general of Poland, Marek Pasonek.
“Forensic medical experts who worked with the exhumations found errors in 90% of the Russian documents on forensic examination of the bodies,” Pasonek said.
He added that this was the reason why the prosecutors decided to conduct an exhumation of all of the bodies of the victims in Poland.
Pasonek reported that Warsaw appealed to Moscow with a request to interrogate Russian forensic experts about the investigation of the Smolensk tragedy, but Russia turned down the request.
According to Pasonek, the exhumation of 10 bodies of those killed in the accident, including the Kaczynski presidential couple, will be carried out by the end of this year.
After the exhumations, forensic experts in each case will have a few days for a detailed study of the bodies with the help of modern devices and methods of research, such as computer tomography, and then four months to prepare appropriate assessment documentation.
Pasonek emphasized that the investigation is not ruling out any single version of the causes of the plane crash, including attempted murder. However, the detection of TNT or any other explosives on the bodies of the dead is not going to be the first priority.
It was noted that the Polish side has taken various diplomatic steps to get the necessary probative value from the Russians.
Prosecutor Krzysztof Schwartz said that the Polish side wants to inventory the broken Tu-154M, which the Russian side still refuses to hand over, and that he would appeal to the Russians regarding this in the nearest future.
As reported before, in June the National Prosecutor’s Office ordered the exhumation of the bodies of all the victims of the accident.
The exhumation will involve 83 victims of the Smolensk catastrophe (excluding nine bodies that had already been exhumed between 2010 and 2015, and four bodies that were cremated) and will be carried out by the end of the year. The first to be exhumed on November 14 will be the Kaczynski presidential couple.
Information about the plans for exhumation has been controversial in Poland, especially among the bereaved relatives. Relatives of 17 victims of the crash urged the authorities to renounce the plans for exhumation in an open letter to the president of Poland, which has already been signed by 238 people as of today.