A team of investigators examining the Smolensk disaster plans to request so-called search-and-arrest warrants for over 40 Russian forensic medical experts. They are accused of falsifying forensic medical reports prepared following the autopsies of the crash victims.
Arrest Requests
This decision was announced this morning by Prosecutor Krzysztof Schwartz, head of Investigative Team No. 1 at the National Prosecutor’s Office. In addition to the main investigation into the Smolensk disaster, prosecutors from this team are also conducting five other proceedings related to the crash.
“The investigation into the falsification of forensic reports by Russian genetic experts and forensic medical examiners is one of several significant so-called Smolensk-related proceedings. We have established beyond any doubt that the forensic medical opinions regarding the autopsies of the crash victims, prepared by Russian doctors as part of the investigation into the Polish plane crash, contain a large number of false statements,” Prosecutor Schwartz stated.
Moreover, the prosecutor revealed that “as a result, charges have been filed against a total of 43 Russian forensic experts concerning 61 autopsies of the crash victims.”
Incompetence or Negligence?
The false and inaccurate information in the Russian reports covered various aspects, including the omission of key identifying features of individual victims, the misrepresentation of significant injuries, and descriptions of organs and wounds that did not actually exist. Additionally, some reports included details of autopsy procedures that were never performed.
“Upon analyzing these autopsy reports—structured differently in Russia than in Poland, where procedural records are combined with expert opinions—we found serious irregularities in more than 60 cases, which, in our opinion, constitute a crime,” the prosecutor stated.
What remains unclear is the reason behind such significant errors—was it deliberate? Pure laziness? Or sheer incompetence?
“We don’t know whether these reports were deliberately falsified, carelessly written, or simply the result of incompetence. What is certain is that they were done haphazardly, with some sections even appearing to be copied and pasted. Perhaps it was done in a typically Russian, nonchalant manner,” Schwartz speculated.
A Long-Standing Investigation
The issue of inaccuracies in Russian medical documentation has been under investigation by Polish prosecutors for years. This was one of the reasons for the exhumation of the victims’ bodies. The decision to conduct exhumations was justified not only by the errors in Russian forensic reports and the lack of photographic documentation but also by Russia’s refusal to allow Polish authorities to question the Russian experts who conducted the autopsies.
According to the prosecution, the exhumations revealed, among other findings, that eight bodies had been misidentified and swapped. This led to the launch of a separate investigation into the Russian forensic experts involved.