Investigators on Tuesday exhumed the remains of a Polish World War II leader killed in a 1943 plane crash in an attempt to determine whether his death was an accident or the result of foul play.
Authorities hope the exhumation of General Wladyslaw Sikorski, who headed occupied Poland’s government-in-exile, will cast light on suspicions that his death was ordered by Soviet or British leaders who were starting to find him politically inconvenient.
“Given Sikorski’s important role in Poland’s history — and having the tools and the know-how that we have now — we cannot let this remain a historical mystery,” said Ewa Koj, the prosecutor overseeing the investigation.
Workers lifted a more than 2 tonne block of green marble inside a crypt at the Wawel Castle Cathedral in Krakow to reach Sikorski’s casket.
The wooden coffin, covered in Poland’s white-and-red flag, was then carried out of the cathedral by six uniformed army officers. To the sound of a military drum, they placed it in an undertakers’ van for transport to a laboratory.
Forensic and medical experts from Krakow’s Institute of Forensic Research and Jagiellonian University will carry out DNA and toxicology tests — which are expected to take about a month — while Sikorski’s remains will be laid to rest again after a Roman Catholic Mass yesterday.
Sikorski became Poland’s prime-minister-in-exile in London and chief army commander in 1939 after Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
He died July 4, 1943, when his plane plunged into the sea just 16 seconds after taking off from a British military base at Gibraltar. He was returning to London from the Middle East, where he had inspected Polish troops about to join the Allies.
The crash also killed his daughter, Zofia Lesniowska, and eight others. Only the Czech pilot survived.
A British investigation at the time ruled the crash an accident, saying the plane had become “uncontrollable for reasons which cannot be established.”
Assassination theories have been fueled by the presence next to Sikorski’s at Gibraltar of a plane used by the Soviet ambassador to London; two previous close calls involving planes carrying Sikorski; and the continuing refusal of British authorities to fully declassify its documents on Sikorski’s death.
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