At the conference, the deputy head of the Ministry of National Defense, Cezary Tomczyk, discussed the most important conclusions from the report of the team that assessed the work of the Smolensk subcommittee. The functioning of Macierewicz's subcommittee cost a total of PLN 81.5 million. Tomczyk also showed contradictions between Macierewicz's theses and the analyzes of foreign experts. He also informed that the subcommittee had lost or destroyed evidence regarding the disaster.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Defense presents the report of the team that assessed the functioning of Antoni Macierewicz's Smolensk subcommittee. The report has 790 pages. As reported by the head of the Ministry of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamyszthe team negatively assessed the operation of the Smolensk subcommittee in all aspects examined, i.e. economy, legality, expediency and reliability.
The deputy head of the Ministry of National Defense spoke about the details of the report at the conference Cezary Tomczykwho supervised the team's work from the government side.
Cost of the subcommittee's work
As Tomczyk said, “in total, the functioning of the Smolensk subcommittee cost the Polish taxpayer PLN 81.5 million, including PLN 47 million for the devastated Tupolev.”
The subcommittee, as reported by the deputy minister, spent, among other things, PLN 17 million on expert opinions, PLN 12.5 million on members' personal expenses and about PLN 1 million on the protection of Antoni Macierewicz.
Expenditures of the Smolensk subcommittee TVN24
Earnings of subcommittee members
Tomczyk also informed about the earnings of individual members of the subcommittee. Tomasz Ziemski earned the most in the years 2016-2023. The “total cost of employment” of this committee member amounted to over PLN 890,000. It cost over PLN 840,000 to employ Janusz Więckowski, and PLN 787,000 for Janusz Bujnowski.
Remuneration of subcommittee membersTVN24
Macierewicz's contacts
Deputy Minister of National Defense Cezary Tomczyk announced that in 2020 Antoni Macierewicz met with the Russian Alexander Glaskov and received materials from him regarding Smolensk disasterwhich he found “interesting”. Politician PIS only five days later he informed the Military Counterintelligence Service about it. Details of Macierewicz's meeting with the Russian were included in the SKW report.
The deputy head of the Ministry of National Defense added that in the course of the team's work, “at least one more case requiring explanation was identified.” – For three years, Antoni Macierewicz contacted a man (a British man – ed.) whose real identity he did not know, allowing him to obtain information about the activities of the Smolensk subcommittee and making it possible for this man to contact foreign experts – he said.
41 notifications to the prosecutor's office
Deputy Minister of National Defense Cezary Tomczyk announced that referrals would be made based on the report 41 applications to the prosecutor's officeincluding 24 concerning Antoni Macierewicz himself.
41 notifications to the prosecutor's officeTVN24
Expert opinions question Macierewicz's hypothesis
Tomczyk recalled the statement of Antoni Macierewicz, who claimed that “there was no wing hitting the birch tree.” The deputy head of the Ministry of National Defense presented details of six analyzes prepared for the Smolensk subcommittee by foreign experts. The subcommittee allocated approximately PLN 14 million for these documents.
These were the expert opinions prepared by the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR), Arnold Frank Taylor, Göran Lilj, Christopher Protheroe, Christer Magnusson and Gregory Szuladziński. – They were the only experts who were certified in disaster research, so their importance is huge – said Tomczyk. All documents presented by the deputy head of the Ministry of National Defense show that The cause of the disaster was the wing hitting a birch tree. Expert opinions also question the hypothesis of an explosion on board.
Contradictions with the NIAR report
Tomczyk compared the subcommittee's report with the NIAR (National Institute of Aviation Research) report, which in many respects are contradictory.
The conclusions presented by Tomczyk concerned issues such as flight trajectory, fuselage destruction and damage to the aircraft wing.
Musicologist, acoustician, psychologist, historian. Composition of the subcommittee
At Thursday's press conference in Warsaw, Tomczyk emphasized that the substantive preparation of many members of the Smolensk subcommittee was not appropriate to the activities carried out, and its members included: a musicologist, an acoustician, a psychologist and Antoni Macierewicz, “who is a historian by education and his Master's thesis concerns the Incas.
– None of these specializations (…) are included in aviation law as required to work in the state aviation accident investigation commission – he noted.
Damaged and lost evidence
Tomczyk recalled that “in accordance with the order to provide access to investigation materials, evidence has been sent from the prosecutor's office to the subcommittee since 2016.” – Evidence, i.e. parts of the Tupolev, the one that crashed near Smolensk, and the Tupolev that to this day, or rather its remains, are in Mińsk Mazowiecki. The documents were deposited in closed envelopes (…) they were accepted without any protocol – said Tomczyk.
He emphasized that Macierewicz argued that no documents or evidence had been destroyed in the Smolensk disaster.
– Five elements of the Tupolev part from Smolensk were destroyed and 19 of these elements were irretrievably lost.. Minister Macierewicz (…) says that it is not true, that no evidence was lost, no evidence was destroyed. In this letter to Deputy Prosecutor General Krzysztof Urbaniak dated December 6, 2023, Antoni Macierewicz admits that he not only lost the evidence, but also accuses Glenn Jorgensen, one of the subcommittee members, of being in possession of the evidence, Tomczyk said.
Main photo source: TVN24