Team of experts to audit work of Smolensk subcommittee says minister
The new Polish defence minister has appointed a team of experts to audit the work of a subcommittee set up to investigate the 2010 Smolensk air disaster, following its liquidation in December.
The 2010 disaster claimed the lives of the then Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, and 95 others when the plane they were travelling on crashed in western Russia.
A 2011 air-accident report, which the current government regards as binding, found that the crash was caused by a combination of factors, including pilot error and bad weather.
However, a special subcommittee was set up to re-investigate the disaster by the then-governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which was in power from 2015 to 2023 and led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Lech's twin brother.
The new commission, however, drew criticism, with critics accusing it of wasting money and being politically motivated, especially as it was headed by Antoni Macierewicz, a former defence minister and close Kaczynski ally.
In its report on the disaster, the subcommittee concluded that the aircraft was brought down by two explosions in an assassination attempt.
Last year Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the new defence minister, ruled that the subcommittee would be wound-up on December 15 and its members dismissed.
Despite its liquidation, Kosiniak-Kamysz announced on Friday that he has appointed a special team of experts to scrutinise the subcommittee's operations.
"We promised our compatriots honesty and a return to the truth," Kosiniak-Kamysz said. "We have a strong mandate to clarify matters of concern."
"This case is not closed. The commission ended with our decision, everything has been secured, but now comes the time to analyse what this commission has done for eight years," he added.
"How much money it spent, how that money was spent, and what was the result of that. Was it not a complete waste?" he concluded.
Just days before it was abolished, the subcommittee submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to prosecute Russia for causing the incident.
Radoslaw Sikorski, the foreign minister, wrote on the X platform on Thursday that he would unilaterally terminate the letter of intent to the ECHR, arguing that "submitting an application that does not even have a theoretical chance of success is undermining the dignity of the state and exposing the taxpayers to unjustified expenses." (PAP)
aj/md/jch
