Former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was on Monday expected to be questioned in Warsaw as a witness in a probe related to the 2010 Polish presidential plane crash in western Russia.

Tusk, now a top European Union official, was Poland's prime minister at the time of the crash near Smolensk, which killed 96 people, including then-President Lech Kaczyński and many top military and political figures.

Tusk, who is president of the European Council and chairs summits of EU leaders, has been summoned to testify in a trial in which the former head of the Prime Minister’s Office, Tomasz Arabski, and four other officials, are accused of failings over the way the presidential flight was organised.

“I’m being called by a court as a witness in a case, so, just like every citizen, I’m obliged to comply. There’s nothing sensational about it," Tusk said recently. He confirmed that he would appear in a Warsaw court as a witness on Monday.

Several dozen members of the public, mostly journalists, were expected to observe the hearing.

In a separate inquiry, Tusk, who was prime minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014, was in August last year questioned by prosecutors in Warsaw probing mistakes in autopsies of the crash victims.

A crowd of supporters and opponents met Tusk before that hearing in Warsaw, much as before his hearing earlier last year as a witness in a spying probe.

The government in Warsaw last year opposed Tusk’s successful bid to secure a second term as president of the European Council.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP