A possible case of diplomatic betrayal in connection with the Smolensk disaster will not be examined by the prosecutor’s office. Investigators have discontinued proceedings related to entrusting the investigation into the causes of the crash to the Russian side. The investigation was launched a decade ago.
The prosecutor’s office has partially discontinued an investigation conducted, among other things, into the so-called diplomatic betrayal in connection with the Smolensk disaster. This concerns issues related to abandoning an “oral agreement” between Poland and Russia on jointly conducting the investigation, as well as the Polish side’s failure to request the establishment of a joint investigative team.
On Tuesday, the prosecutor’s office announced that on March 4, the head of Investigative Team No. 1 of the National Prosecutor’s Office issued a decision to partially discontinue the investigation, including the thread concerning the so-called diplomatic betrayal. The investigation was initiated on August 31, 2016, and is multi-threaded.
They Were Supposed to Examine This Conversation
The decision to partially discontinue concerns two threads. The first was initiated by two written notifications submitted by private individuals in 2010. The notifying parties indicated that on April 10, 2010, during a telephone conversation between the Prime Minister (then Donald Tusk) or the Speaker of the Sejm acting as President (Bronisław Komorowski), and the President of the Russian Federation (Dmitry Medvedev), an oral agreement was allegedly concluded regarding the joint conduct of the investigation into the Tu-154M crash by Polish and Russian prosecutors. According to the notifying parties, on the same day the Prime Minister or the Speaker of the Sejm was to have withdrawn from this agreement, also orally, which – in their view – constituted an act detrimental to the Republic of Poland within the meaning of Article 129 of the Criminal Code (the offense of “diplomatic betrayal”).
The prosecutor’s office stated that as a result of the conducted proceedings, no evidence was obtained to confirm the claims contained in the notifications. It was also indicated that in April 2010, the prosecutor’s office was independent of the government, and the function of the Prosecutor General was separate from that of the Minister of Justice. Consequently, neither the Prime Minister nor the President had the authority to conclude any agreements regarding the manner of conducting the investigation, “transferring the investigation,” or creating or requesting the establishment of joint international investigative teams – the National Prosecutor’s Office reported.
The Entire Investigation Handed Over to the Russians
The second thread discontinued by the prosecutor’s office concerns the failure of the Polish Prosecutor General to submit a request to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation to establish a joint investigative team to conduct preparatory proceedings in the Smolensk disaster case. Findings from the investigation indicate that the failure to submit such a request to the Russian authorities primarily resulted from assessments made in 2010 within the Prosecutor General’s Office that such a request would be ineffective due to the lack of appropriate legal regulations on the Russian side. As explained, the Russian Federation was not a party to international legal acts providing for the establishment of joint investigative teams.
In discontinuing this thread, a prosecutor from Investigative Team No. 1 assessed that the failure in 2010 to submit a request to the authorities of the Russian Federation to establish a joint investigative team did not fulfill the elements of any criminal offense, including in particular “diplomatic betrayal” under Article 129 of the Criminal Code or aiding an offender under Article 239 of the Criminal Code – the National Prosecutor’s Office stated.
The decision to partially discontinue the investigation is final. The main thread of the investigation concerning the so-called diplomatic betrayal remains ongoing, namely actions to the detriment of the Republic of Poland in the period from April 2010 to January 2011 by Polish public officials through the conclusion of an unfavorable international agreement with the Russian Federation regarding the selection of the legal mechanism for investigating the causes of the air disaster.