Special investigative team appointed to examine Macierewicz's subcommittee

The team will handle notifications from the Ministry of National Defense and analyze a report from the ministry's assessment of the subcommittee. The investigation will focus on potential abuses of authority, neglect of duty, and actions harmful to public or private interests, as well wrongful acts identified, including different stages and manifestations of the suspected offenses.

According to National Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Anna Adamiak, the newly appointed team comprises six prosecutors from the National Prosecutor’s Office. The team’s operations will be directed by Colonel Tomasz Mackiewicz, head of the Department for Military Affairs within the National Prosecutor’s Office, and oversight will be provided by the national prosecutor.

Adamiak explained that the team’s mandate includes examining alleged irregularities in the Smolensk subcommittee’s work from 2016 to 2023, with an emphasis on any suspected breaches of authority, neglect of duty, or actions that may have harmed public or private interests. The team will also assess other potentially unlawful acts, including any preliminary stages or wider implications of these actions.

The Ministry of National Defense recently submitted a report to the National Prosecutor’s Office detailing findings from an internal team investigating the subcommittee’s work, along with 41 formal notifications of suspected offenses. These notifications are based on alleged irregularities found in the subcommittee’s operations.

According to Adamiak, the special investigative team will be responsible for analyzing both the report and the notifications. Following their review, the team will make procedural decisions on how to proceed with the investigation.

The Smolensk crash reinvestigation subcommittee was established in February 2016 by the then defence minister Antoni Macierewicz. In 2018, when Macierewicz stepped down as defence ministry chief, he took over the chairmanship of the subcommittee.

On December 15, Poland's Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz decided to shut down the parliamentary subcommittee, stripping all its members of authorization and powers necessary to act on behalf of the body.

The Smolensk air disaster was investigated by the State Commission on Aircraft Accidents Investigation, presided by the then Minister of the Interior and Administration Jerzy Miller. The commission published its final report in July 2011.

In the final report, the commission said that "the immediate cause of the accident was the descent below the minimum descent altitude at an excessive rate of descent in weather conditions which prevented visual contact with the ground, as well as a delayed execution of the go-around procedure".

"Those circumstances led to an impact on a terrain obstacle resulting in separation of a part of the left wing with aileron and consequently to the loss of aircraft control and eventual ground impact," it added.