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Fragments of crashed Polish presidential plane aren’t cleaned up

Fragments are being stored in a locked up hangar on a protected territory
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, April 13 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian detectives did not clean up fragments of the Polish presidential plane, which crashed near Smolensk, and did not plan to do that, Russian Investigation Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Friday in comment on Polish media reports claiming the alleged clean up of fragments of the Tupolev Tu-154M jetliner of the Polish Air Force stored at the Smolensk airfield.

“Fragments are being stored in a locked up hangar on a protected territory. Unauthorized persons have no access to them so any such actions are impossible,” Markin said.

“Throughout the investigation of the crash of the Tu-154M of the Polish Air Force, the Russian Investigation Committee has been cooperating closely with the Polish side. All the Polish plane fragments have been repeatedly examined by detectives and forensic crews, among them Polish experts and prosecutors. Russia is open to any joint work with Polish investigators, in particular, in the preservation and examination of plane fragments,” he said.

The jetliner transporting a Polish governmental delegation led by President Lech Kaczynski to Smolensk for attending a Katyn remembrance ceremony crashed on April 10, 2010. The crash killed all the 96 people aboard, among them the president, his spouse, a number of government members and parliamentarians.