Polish courts have ordered the temporary detention of 14 Russian forensic experts involved in the autopsies of victims of the 2010 Smolensk disaster. They are now being sought under arrest warrants, which could become a direct path toward an international wanted notice.

The prosecution uncovered systematic violations in Russian medical documentation. The main allegations concern the inclusion of false information in forensic reports, including the omission of bodily injuries and fabricated descriptions of trauma. Some reports were simply copied from one another. Exhumations conducted in Poland also revealed that eight bodies had been misidentified.

The prosecution had requested the arrest of 40 Russian experts in total. Courts rejected the requests concerning 26 individuals, although decisions involving six of them have already been appealed. Earlier, under a similar procedure, a Polish court also ordered the arrest in absentia of a Russian air traffic controller who was on duty on the day of the disaster.

The Smolensk Disaster

On April 10, 2010, a Polish presidential Tu-154 crashed near Smolensk while en route to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre.

All 96 people on board were killed, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński, First Lady Maria Kaczyńska, and senior Polish military and government officials.

For years, Warsaw documented discrepancies and false information in Russian forensic findings. Poland is now moving the issue into the legal sphere: arrest warrants, international searches, and direct pressure on individuals who for years remained shielded behind the formula “not established.”

The reopening of the case represents a significant escalation in Poland’s approach to the Smolensk disaster and its handling of Russian responsibility and evidence.

Warsaw is showing its teeth to the Kremlin. The 2010 Smolensk disaster case has been brought back into the spotlight.