The case of organizing a flight to Smolensk in 2010 will be heard tomorrow at the Supreme Court. The Criminal Chamber will hear the cassation appeal against Arabski’s conviction

A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow at the Supreme Court on the trial for organizing a flight to Smolensk in 2010. The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court is hearing cassation appeals against the final judgment of June 2021, which, among other things, convicts the former head of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery, Tomasz Arabski.

In February last year, an appeal was lodged in this case with the Supreme Court. As reported at the time, they were filed by the lawyers of the two convicts in this case, i.e. Tomasz Arabski and the clerk Monika B., as well as by the Public Prosecutor’s Office – to the detriment of Miłosław K., another of the officials who were legally acquitted by the court.

A panel of three judges from the Criminal Chamber will be appointed to the case at the Supreme Court, and the case rapporteur will be Judge Małgorzata Wąsek-Wiaderek. In addition to her, there are also jury members: Jarosław Matras and Eugeniusz Wildowicz. The hearing was scheduled for November 29 afterwards at the Supreme Court 10.

The trial on the organization of the Prime Minister’s and President’s flights to Smolensk on April 7 and 10, 2010 against six defendants has been ongoing at the Warsaw District Court since March 2016.

In June 2019, the Warsaw Regional Court unlawfully sentenced Arabski at first instance to ten months in prison, of which two years were suspended. The court also found Monika B., an official in the Prime Minister’s Office, guilty and was sentenced to six months in prison, of which one year was suspended. The three remaining accused officials – Miłosław K. from the Prime Minister’s Office and Justyna G. and Grzegorz C. from the Polish Embassy in Moscow – were acquitted by the court.

Both the Public Prosecution Service appealed the verdict and wanted a ruling against Arab, who banned him from holding leadership positions, as well as the defense, which asked for his acquittal.

In June 2021, the Court of Appeal in Warsaw confirmed the sentences imposed on Arabski and B. at first instance. The only change was a change in the description of the crime they were accused of. The idea was to expand this to include the mention of actions at the expense of the public interest and the private interest.

Findings of the court

The Court of Appeal agreed with the findings of the Court of First Instance, according to which Arabski and Monika B. flew the plane to the closed airport. At the same time, Judge Anna Kalbarczyk pointed out in the reasons for the judgment at second instance that the regulations in this case provided for many fuses, but they were all “switched off”.

The first fuse was the Chancellery of the President, which was not allowed to indicate the landing place of the ship with the president as Smolensk, because there was no active airport there. The second fuse was the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, i.e. the Coordinator (T. Arabski – PAP) and Monika B., acting on his authority, who should not have accepted such a demand because it was not in accordance with the regulations in force in that time.

– she mentioned.

The third fuse was the State Security Bureau, which did not take the measures it was supposed to take in this regard (…). The fourth fuse was the 36th Special Regiment, which should not have agreed to the flight to Smolensk

– said the judge. As she emphasized, it is impossible to agree with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which assessed the role of Arabski and Monika B. as crucial, because each of the institutions mentioned was crucial.

The trial was initiated by private prosecution. Its basis was art. 231 of the Criminal Code, which provides for a maximum of three years’ imprisonment for failure to perform the duties of a public official. The charges were filed after the Warsaw-Prague Public Prosecutor’s Office legally halted the investigation into the organization of the Prime Minister’s and President’s flights to Smolensk on April 7 and 10, 2010.

The plaintiffs in this case were relatives of several victims of the disaster, including: Anna Walentynowicz, Janusz Kochanowski, Andrzej Przewoźnik, Władysław Stasiak, Sławomir Skrzypek and Zbigniew Wassermann. At the beginning of the trial, the Public Prosecution Service joined the case.

Cost

The allegations in the cassation appeals of Arabski’s defenders include – as reported – among others: improper staffing of the Court of Appeal and lack of competent prosecutors when it comes to the issue of the flight organization being investigated in this trial. The defense requests that preliminary questions be submitted to the Court of Justice of the EU. In cassation appeals, defense lawyers demand the annulment of the verdict and the acquittal of the convicted person, or possibly the termination of the case.

The Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office, referring in November 2021 to the cassation appeal of Arabski’s defense, replied in its opinion that the analysis of the charges indicates that they constitute an attempt by the Supreme Court to conduct another appeal review of the verdict of the Warsaw District Court. first instance, which means that the cassation appeals are ‘manifestly unfounded’. The public prosecutor’s office ruled, among other things, as “completely unfounded”. the accusation of improper staffing at the Court of Appeal due to the presence of persons appointed as judges following the amendment of the law on the National Council of the Judiciary in December 2017.

According to the Public Prosecution Service, the lawyers’ cassation requests are intended “to prolong the judicial proceedings and therefore lead to the expiration of the limitation period for the crime committed by Tomasz Arabski, which – if the final conviction were to be quashed – would take place in April 2025.”

READ MORE: Jarosław Kaczyński and PiS politicians honored the memory of the victims of the Smolensk disaster. They laid wreaths in front of the monuments on the square. Pilsudski

edy/PAP