EU's Tusk summoned to Warsaw hearing over 2010 plane crash

European Council President and former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will be questioned on August 3 in Poland on an investigation into official neglect of duty linked to the 2010 Smolensk air disaster.

Tusk has been summoned to appear at Poland's national public prosecutor's office, Xinhua quoted Tusk's lawyer Roman Giertych citing the Polish Press Agency on Thursday.

According to him, Tusk will appear at the prosecutor's office on the set date "if there are no unforeseen circumstances."

Tusk will testify as a witness in a probe into public officials failing to comply with their obligations in April 2010.

The prosecutor's office said in a press release that officials did not participate in the post-mortem of the Smolensk catastrophe's 96 victims conducted in Russia.

They also failed to order autopsies directly after the victims' bodies were brought to Poland, the prosecutor's office pointed out, adding that due to ongoing investigation, it is necessary to hear a number of witnesses, including Tusk.

"The failure of ordering Smolensk catastrophe victims' autopsies right after their bodies were brought to Poland, contrary to the Polish Penal Code, led to a number of errors revealed during the currently-conducted exhumations," the prosecutor's office noted.

In one case, a coffin was found to contain the body parts of eight other people, while another was filled with remains of five persons.

On April 10, 2010, a Polish government plane with then Polish president, first lady and dozens of senior government officials and military commanders crashed near a military airfield in Smolensk, western Russia, killing all 96 people on board.

--IANS

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