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Russian GIs Face Trial for Looting Kaczynski Plane

© RIA Novosti . Oleg Mineev / Go to the mediabankSmolensk air crash
Smolensk air crash  - Sputnik International
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Russian military investigators reported Saturday they have wrapped up an inquiry into four Russian soldiers who allegedly stole a wallet found in the wreckage of Polish President Lech Kaczynski's plane, which crashed near the western Russian city of Smolensk in 2010.

MOSCOW, December 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russian military investigators reported Saturday they have wrapped up an inquiry into four Russian soldiers who allegedly stole a wallet found in the wreckage of Polish President Lech Kaczynski's plane, which crashed near the western Russian city of Smolensk in 2010.

The Soviet-made Tu-154 passenger jet went down on April 10, 2010 in thick fog killing all 96 people on board, including the president, his wife and many other top Polish officials.

Military investigators of the Smolensk region reported Saturday that on the day of the crash four conscripts ­- Sergei Syrov, Igor Pustovarov, Yury Sankov and Artur Pankratov - discovered a wallet with a bank card and its pin code that belonged to top Polish official Andrzej Przewoznik, and withdrew money from his account. The four will stand trial and face up to six years if convicted.

Przewoznik, who also died in the crash, had been the chief organizer of the Katyn memorial events, which the Polish president was scheduled to attend.

His widow told journalists in 2010 that some $2,000 disappeared from Przewoznik’s bank account, with the first transaction taking place on the day of the air crash, April 10, and two other transactions occurring in the following two days, also in Smolensk.

In June 2010 the four confessed of stealing a total of 60,345 rubles (about $2,000).

The Polish dignitaries were flying to Smolensk to attend joint Polish-Russian ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the 1940 massacre in nearby Katyn Forest, when thousands of captured Polish officers were executed by the Soviet secret police.

 

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