The Polish Chief Military Prosecutor's Office does not rule out that suspects may appear in the Polish presidential plane crash, Poland's chief military prosecutor said.
A Soviet-made Tu-154 carrying then President Lech Kaczynski and about 90 officials crashed en route to the western Russian city of Smolensk on April 10, killing everyone on board. The high-ranking delegation was due to attend a memorial ceremony for the victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre, in which Soviet secret police killed thousands of Polish military officers.
"Our main goal is to get to the truth," Gen. Krzysztof Parulski said in Moscow. "However, I do not rule out that suspects may appear in a criminal case," he continued.
Russia handed 11 volumes of the incident to Warsaw at an official ceremony in Moscow on August 11. Parulski and Deputy Russian Prosecutor General Alexander Zvyagintsev participated in the ceremony.
The documents contain serious evidence, Parulski said. "We fully trust them," he continued.
During the month, Moscow will hand Poland the remaining documents on the investigation of the crash, Zvyagintsev said.
In September, Warsaw is expected to hand the documents for investigations to be conducted by the Polish side.
"The Russian side has sent us three requests for legal assistance," Parulski said. "Currently we have nothing to say yet. But I guarantee that these requests are being actively executed, and the first request to interview five witnesses, I hope, will be executed in early September," he continued.
Russian and Polish investigators and experts have been jointly investigating the causes of the crash.
Following the crash, Poland held early presidential elections, which were narrowly won by Bronislaw Komorowski, a pro-EU, moderate member of the governing Civic Platform party.
Under Kaczynski, Moscow and Warsaw were at odds over a range of historical disputes, but the Russian leadership's sincere reaction to the deadly crash helped improve Russia's image in the eyes of many Poles.
Poland's newly inaugurated President Komorowski opened on Sunday a memorable plaque in Warsaw Military Cathedral to commemorate the victims of the plane crash in western Russia.
The memorable plaque was placed in the cathedral's Katyn Chapel. The plaque bears the names of all the people who died in the crash. There is also a box to the left of the plaque with soil from the site of the plane crash.
MOSCOW, August 19 (RIA Novosti)
