Donald Tusk called to testify before the Polish Prosecution in the Smolensk Investigation
Published May 21, 2017
The head of the European Council, former Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, was called to testify as a witness on July 5th 2017. The deposition pertains to the failure of the Tusk government to carry out autopsies of the Smolensk victims, the prosecutor spokeswoman Ewa Bialik informed the press.
“Prosecutors from the national prosecutor's office number one who work on the Smolensk case called Donald Tusk to testify as a witness in the investigation into the conduct by public officials for non-performance of duties, in particular the failure to perform the autopsy of the victims of this catastrophe," Bialik said. She revealed that the former Prime Minister was summoned for July 5, 2017.
"The date is set for the beginning of July. The prosecutor sent a subpoena. From what I remember it is July 5," said Roman Giertych, attorney for Tusk. He added that his client received a notice of summons from which it is not clear as to what case it relates to. Tusk already testified on 19 April 19, 2017, as a witness in the investigation of the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw over the non-fulfillment of duties by SKW command in connection with their signing of an agreement with the Russian FSB after the Smolensk crash.
The circumstances of the Smolensk catastrophe are investigated by a special team at the National Prosecutor's Office. In addition to the main proceedings, there are seven additional cases in this matter taken over from the liquidated military prosecutor's office.
As reported by the State Prosecutor's Office on the seventh anniversary of the Smolensk disaster, one of the proceedings concerns the failure of the Polish military prosecutor's office, among others, to submit a request to the Russian side that the Polish side perform autopsies of the victims’ bodies in Russia.
Glaring errors found in the medical records prepared by Russian experts are one of the reasons for the ongoing exhumations of all victims of this catastrophe. Serious doubts as to the proper identification of the bodies have emerged already back in 2011. As a result of major discrepancies, nine exhumations were conducted in 2011-2012. Out of those nine, six bodies were buried in wrong graves. The experts who conducted then the autopsies assessed that the error rate of the Russian medical records was 90 percent. Currently, the autopsies commissioned by the National Prosecutor's Office are conducted by a 14-person international team of experts.
Other investigations related to the Smolensk crash that are conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office concern abuse of trust in foreign relations – the so-called diplomatic betrayal pursuant to Article 129 of the Polish Penal Code, falsification of documents by Bureau for Protection of Government Officials (“BOR”). A part of this investigation is classified. Another investigation pertains to the destruction of the Tu-154M wreckage that constitutes direct evidence in this case. The Prosecution Office earlier reported that there is one more investigation regarding diplomatic betrayal. Another investigation involves falsification of the autopsy protocols prepared by Russian experts as well as desecration of corpses of the victims of the catastrophe. In addition, prosecutors are analyzing materials on irregularities in BOR. As reported in mid-April, investigations are ongoing, no charges have been filed yet.
On April 10, 2010 in Smolensk, Russia, the crash of Polish Air Force One killed 96 people, including President of Poland Lech Kaczyński, his wife, the entire Central Command of the Polish Armed Forces, many top polish officials, and families of the Katyn victims.
In 2017 in the main Smolensk investigation, the Polish Prosecution Office decided to introduce new charges against two air traffic controllers in Smolensk - they are now charged with "deliberately bringing about the disaster" of April 10, 2010, and against a third person who was then present in the air traffic control tower. Previously, one of the air traffic controllers was charged with bringing about the air disaster, and the other person was charged with unintentional causing the crash.
The Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw recently also charged two Polish officers from the 36th Special Aviation Regiment, which was responsible for the protection of the most important persons in the state. This Regiment was dissolved after the catastrophe.
Click on the thumbnails below to view screen dumps from the detectors used to examine the wreckage and seats from the Polish president's plane crash in Smolensk. An "X" denotes the presence of the detected explosive substance and its type. The underlined Polish word "Probka" or "probka" in the screen dump 1 and 2, means "Sample"
Why did they all fly on the same plane?
Synopsis: January 12, 2013, Toronto, Canada. The wife of the late Deputy-Minister of Culture Tomasz Merta: "What I am about to tell you now, are suspicions - and not even my own - but, rather the [suspicions of the] individuals in the inner-circles of the [Polish] military... I heard a statement that was made - but, I am not taking any responsibility for how credible, or not credible it is. [I heard that] had the generals and journalists' not been re-assigned to different aircraft, it wouldn't have been the Tupolev [Tu-154M], but rather the Casa [transport aircraft] that would have been taken out.
Because the Generals were no longer onboard the Casa, there was no reason for it to get airborne. And for this reason it was the Yak[-40] that flew off to Smolensk. This Casa [transport aircraft] was never examined in any way. It was not subject to any examination. Aside from a single note in the deposition given to the military, no one was interested why this aircraft didn't fly [to Smolensk]. Perhaps, this is someones crazy phantasy, but perhaps it isn't.
Some [Polish] military personnel had suggested, that it [the Casa] had to stay behind at the Okecie military [tarmack], so that the explosives could be removed from it - because they were no longer needed [...] I am only repeating what I was told."
"Disarming" Explosives ...
It is worth for us to retrace the entire process of "disarming" the case of explosive substances at the crash site. It all started with the publication of Cezary Gmyz in "Rzeczpospolita" on October 30, 2012, and information that the detectors, which were used by experts in Smolensk (in late September and October) showed traces of TNT and nitroglycerine.
As it turned out, the journalist was also reporting about the indication of Hexogen. The storm broke. The prosecution denied the publication, and ultimately, the editor-in-chief of "Rzeczpospolita," Cezary Gmyz and two other journalists lost their jobs. The entire editorial staff of one of Poland’s most popular weeklies, "Uważam Rze", was also silenced.
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