There is no doubt the Smolensk Air Disaster was an assassination: deputy PM

“I have no doubts that there was an assassination attempt,” the head of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) and current deputy Prime Minister Jarowsław Kaczyński said during an interview with the Polish Press Agency (PAP) regarding the recent findings of the sub-committee to investigate the Smolensk Air Disaster.

According to the report published by the Smoleńsk sub-committee, two distinct explosions were the direct causes of the crash. However, these findings were presented by the commission, also in earlier reports. The evidence analysed under the investigation was provided by Polish governmental institutions, including the MFA, Defence Ministry and Internal Ministry.

The deputy PM said that he has no doubts that there was an assassination attempt that “caused the catastrophe and death of 96 people, including the president of Poland and my twin brother”. He added that the only thing left is to establish who is responsible for the assassination at a trial level. He also stressed that “there is still work to be done”.

The head of PiS also raised the issue of the explosion itself which was suggested to be caused by a thermobaric weapon. He said that “it is a well-known method of causing explosions” and this kind of weapon was recently used by Russia in Ukraine.

Responsibility has to be determined

The sub-committee found that the decision to hand over the Tu-154M aeroplane for renovation, before the Smolensk Air Disaster, in Samara in the Aviakor plant owned at that time by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch and Vladimir Putin’s friend, was positively assessed by the Polish intelligence services and the management of the Ministry of Defense.

According to Mr Kaczyński, any political and moral responsibility for the disaster lies upon those people, however, any further responsibility for these actions has to be determined by prosecutors and courts in accordance with Polish law.

“The Prosecutor’s Office is the decider. I don’t want to be accused of trying to exert pressure on the prosecutor’s office, but in my opinion, the issue of responsibility in the procedural and criminal sense of the word is still very much up to date in Poland, although the statute of limitations is starting to run out on some crimes,” he emphasised.

The report could be basis for some international actions

“It (the report) should be the basis for efforts to make this case international. But some international institutions may be too weak,” the deputy PM stated.

He also added that much of the sub-committee’s work is yet to be shown, and when the report will be finally shown with all its details it will “answer all questions and doubts”.

In conclusion, he stated that when the Soviet Union collapsed, a system arose that, in some respects, was a little more dangerous than the old one.