Warsaw wants prompt return of Polish plane wreck by Russia
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
12.10.2018 17:36
Warsaw has said it hopes a resolution by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Friday will encourage Moscow to return without delay the wreck of a Polish presidential plane that crashed in Russia in 2010.
The crashed Polish presidential plane near Smolensk, western Russia, in 2010. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Bartosz Staszewski, PRS Team.net. (CC BY-SA 2.5)
On April 10, 2010, a Polish plane carrying then-President Lech Kaczyński, his wife, and 94 others – mostly political and military top brass – crashed while trying to land at a military airport in Smolensk, western Rusia.
Russia has refused to return the presidential plane wreck to Poland, claiming that it is continuing to investigate the crash.
The Polish foreign ministry’s comments came after the Parliamentary Assembly earlier on Friday called on Russia to “hand over the wreckage of the Polish Air Force Tu-154 to the competent Polish authorities without further delay” in a manner that “avoids any further deterioration” of potential evidence.
“The continuing refusal of the Russian authorities to return the wreckage and other evidence constitutes an abuse of rights and has fuelled speculation on the Polish side that Russia has something to hide,” the Council of Europe parliamentarians said.
The Council of Europe is a human rights organisation. Its parliamentary arm groups representatives of parliaments from the council’s member states.
(pk)
Source: PAP