Smolensk disaster – investigation. Meeting at the National Prosecutor's Office with the families of the victims of the Smolensk disaster

On Thursday, a meeting was held at the National Prosecutor's Office with family members of the Smolensk disaster victims and their representatives. According to the PK, the aim of the meeting was to provide the victims and their representatives with comprehensive information about the course of the investigation and the cooperation of the prosecutor's office's investigative team with the subcommittee of the Ministry of National Defense for the re-examination of the Tu-154 plane crash near Smolensk, working in the years 2016-2023.

In the afternoon, the spokesman for the National Prosecutor's Office, Przemysław Nowak, announced that the meeting lasted over three hours in total and was attended by about 50 people. “Prosecutors informed about the most important findings of the investigation, but also answered questions from the injured,” said the spokesman for the National Prosecutor's Office.

He said that “for about an hour and a half, prosecutors from the investigative team informed the victims about the most important findings of the investigation.” The head of the investigative team investigating the disaster, prosecutor Krzysztof Schwartz, “presented the most important information about the course of the proceedings, procedural activities performed so far, activities that have not been completed due to the lack of cooperation on the part of the Russian Federation, as well as planned activities aimed at ending the proceedings.” “The prosecutor also presented information on physicochemical tests, including the reasons for re-conducting them, the scope of the tests, evidentiary limitations and, above all, the content of the opinions obtained,” Nowak said.

The remaining prosecutors presented information on the analysis of the recordings of the sound recorders and flight parameters that were on board the Tupolev, as well as conclusions from opinions in this regard, including phonoscopic opinions. Those present at the meeting were also provided with information on the medico-forensic examinations carried out, “including their scope, and the reasons for establishing the International Team of Experts in the field of forensic medicine”, as well as on the conclusions resulting from the comprehensive opinion obtained. The prosecutor's office also informed about other forensic tests, including tests of data carriers secured at the scene of the incident.

“In the second part of the meeting, the injured parties and their representatives asked questions to prosecutors and the National Prosecutor. The questions concerned various issues, both substantive and formal and procedural in nature. Some of the questions concerned specific findings of evidence, doubts as to the content of opinions, reasons for the impossibility of carrying out certain activities, planned further actions, as well as the procedural rights of the injured persons, including access to case files. The issue of difficult cooperation with the Aircraft Accident Re-Investigation Subcommittee and the effects of lack of cooperation on the part of the Russian Federation were also discussed – said the spokesman of the National Prosecutor's Office. He assured that “all questions have been answered.”

“In total, the meeting lasted over 3 hours. At the end, it was agreed that another meeting with the victims would be organized after obtaining, translating and analyzing a comprehensive opinion of the International Team of Experts. During the meeting, prosecutors repeatedly emphasized the high evidentiary importance of the above opinion, because its purpose is to finally determine the course and causes of the disaster. The work of this team is at the final stage. The expected date of issuing an opinion (in English) is August 2024,” prosecutor Nowak recalled in the statement.

The husband of one of the victims – Paweł Deresz, who participated in Thursday's meeting at the PK, said that the talks included: on the completion of the investigation into the causes of the Smolensk disaster. – It turns out that we will have to wait a long time for this – he said. He added that the team of investigators will receive reports from international commissions in August, including: from the United States, which will need to be analyzed. – It is expected that we will know what happened with the Smolensk tragedy, according to Polish prosecutors, in the first quarter of next year at the earliest – he said.

When asked about the issue of exhumation of the victims, he noted that the prosecutor's office still believed that they were justified. He added that “the prosecutor's office expressed outrage that Antoni Macierewicz's commission uses prosecutor's data to prove its theories about the explosion.”

Deresz said that the families of about one third of the disaster victims attended Thursday's meeting. – We were divided again. Some Smolensk families insisted that there was an explosion. They tried to prove it to the prosecutor's office, he said.

Andrzej Melak, the brother of Stefan Melak, who died in the Smolensk plane crash in 2010, called the meeting in the Sejm a hoax in which he would not participate. He emphasized that he was not going to this meeting, among other things. due to the statements of the Ministry of National Defense and voices regarding the fact that – as he said – the report by Tatiana Anodina and Jerzy Miller had been restored. – This is an insult to the Polish raison d'état, to the families and to me personally – he said.

He accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk of handing over the investigation to Russia, which owns the airport where the controllers who brought the Russian-made plane to land worked. He assessed that it was “a disgrace for Poland and cowardice on the part of the then Prime Minister.” – He could have sought to conduct a joint investigation with the Russians in accordance with the 1993 military agreement. Unfortunately, he chose the version of the Chicago Convention (Convention on International Civil Aviation – ed.), which concerned only private flights and non-military cruises – he said.

PiS MP and former Minister of Defense and chairman of the Smolensk subcommittee, Antoni Macierewicz, said at a briefing in the Sejm that “there is no doubt that nearly 100 fragments of explosives were found on parts of the plane, and the prosecutor's office, which confirmed that (these fragments) were found, claims that there is no evidence that an explosion occurred. – There is no other possibility of the presence of explosive fragments other than as a result of an explosion – argued Macierewicz.

Macierewicz put the lie to the theses pushed by the subcommittee that cost taxpayers millions of zlotys in his reportage “The Power of Lies” TVN24 journalist Piotr Świerczek, revealing recordings, photos and expert opinions commissioned by the subcommittee that were never included in its reports.

SEE ALSO: Inconvenient facts about the “work” of the Smolensk commission

These materials either directly exclude the attack or point to the disaster as the cause of the tragedy. Świerczek also talked to people who worked for the subcommittee, but they did not agree with its conclusions that an attack took place in Smolensk. Moreover, the TVN24 journalist's interlocutors directly said that their research had been manipulated or selectively used to support theses established in advance by the subcommittee led by Antoni Macierewicz.

In the latest report “The Power of the Investigation”, Piotr Świerczek talked to prosecutor Krzysztof Schwartz, head of Investigative Team No. 1, established to investigate the causes of the Smolensk disaster.

– Yes, I regret it – he replies when asked if he regrets joining Investigation Team No. 1. – I considered it a professional challenge, even though I have been working in the prosecutor's office for 30 years and have handled various proceedings – he explains. – There are a lot of emotions, sometimes very unfair judgments, labels that have been sewn on us – he emphasizes.

SEE ALSO: Head of the prosecutors' team investigating the causes of the Smolensk disaster. “Yes, I regret it”

The subcommittee for the re-examination of the Smolensk disaster was dissolved in the second half of December 2023 by the decision of the current head of the Ministry of National Defense, Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.

On April 10, 2010, 96 people died in the crash of the Tu-154M plane near Smolensk, including President Lech Kaczyński and his wife Maria, the highest commanders of the Polish Army, the last President of the Republic of Poland in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, and representatives of the Katyn Families. The Polish delegation was heading to the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre.

The investigation of the Smolensk crash in Poland was carried out by the State Aviation Accident Investigation Commission, headed by the then head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, Jerzy Miller. Its report was published in July 2011.

In the final conclusions of the report, the experts indicated that the cause of the accident was “a descent below the minimum descent altitude, at an excessive rate of descent, in atmospheric conditions that prevented visual contact with the ground and a late start of the go-around procedure. This led to a collision with a terrain obstacle, detachment of a fragment left wing together with the aileron, and consequently to the loss of control of the aircraft and collision with the ground.

Since the beginning of the investigation into the Smolensk disaster, many versions of the event have been verified in parallel, over 1,000 witnesses have been interviewed, several hundred expert opinions have been obtained, and the case files currently number nearly 1,900 volumes. The investigation into this case has been extended until the end of 2024.