Defence ministry shuts down parliamentary Smolensk crash reinvestigation subcommittee

The Polish Ministry of National Defence said on Friday that its chief Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz had signed a decision, undersigned by his deputy Cezary Tomczyk, shutting down the parliamentary subcommittee for reinvestigation of the 2010 Smolensk air disaster that had killed 96 people, including the then president of Poland Lech Kaczyński.

"The subcommittee is hereby liquidated and its members have been obliged - by next Monday, Dec. 18, 2023 - to account for all documentation, property and equipment used in the subcommittee's work," the MOD added.

The ministry also stressed that all members of the subcommittee had been stripped of authorization and powers necessary to act on behalf of the body. "In the near future a special team will be called up to analyze each and every aspect of the liquidated subcommittee's activity."

Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk commented on the ministry's decision at a press conference on Friday.

"Today, on December 15, I would like announce on behalf of the Polish state that this is the end of lies. This is the end of spending hundreds of millions of zlotys on the activity that has nothing to do with investigating the causes of the disaster, but which has plenty to do with politics," he said.

Tomczyk was asked about Poland's current standpoint regarding the Smolensk disaster. "Jerzy Miller's report, the Miller's commission report is the binding report on behalf of the Polish state. I don't know anything about the question of Antoni Macierewicz and his strange research which - as far as I know - hasn't been completed, but I know one thing for certain - Jerzy Miller's report is the binding report and it will return to the MOD website," he stressed.

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.

In May 2023, the then senator and current Civic Coalition MP Krzysztof Brejza wrote that Macierewicz's subcommittee had already spent more than 31 million zlotys on its activity.

In its response to Brejza's query, the MOD chief's operational center said that that - since its conception until May 15, 2023 - the subcommittee had generated a total cost of 31,121,974,32 zlotys.

In a TVN24 report titled "The Power of a Lie", we cast doubt on the reliability of the work of the so-called Macierewicz's subcommittee. We have uncovered supressed facts from the American NIAR report as well as accounts of people who took part in the Smolensk subcommittee works.

First aired on September 12, 2022, "The Power of a Lie" is a result of many months of meticulous work carried out by TVN24 "Czarno na białym" reporter Piotr Świerczek. The author has seen videos, images, and international expertise on the 2010 Smolensk plane crash. Although said expertise and documentation had been ordered by the so-called Antoni Macierewicz's Smolensk Subcommittee, they were never used in any of the subcommittee's reports, including the last one - meant to be the final report. Said materials either directly rule out assassination or point to an air disaster as the cause of the tragedy. Furthermore, Piotr Świerczek spoke with people who had worked for the subcommittee, but disagree with its conclusions suggesting that what happened in Smolensk was an assassination. On top of that, the same people state openly that their research was either manipulated or cherry-picked to match the theses preconceived by the subcommittee.

Instead of safeguarding the freedom of speech, Poland's National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT), acting on Antoni Macierewicz's request, sought to punish TVN24 for its report.

As a sign of solidarity with TVN24, dozens of Poland's largest nationwide and local media outlets have decided to publish "The Power of a Lie" on their websites

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.