In the latest twist in Poland's political drama, the country's new centre-left coalition plans to reverse the work of the ousted right-wing nationalist leaders regarding a commission set up to investigate the deadly Smolensk plane crash in 2010.
The crash killed all 96 passengers on board, including then-president Lech Kaczyński, many politicians, military personnel, representatives of the church and Polish civil society.
The Polish government plane crashed on April 10, 2010, while approaching the military airfield in the Russian city of Smolensk in dense fog.
Investigations by Poland and Russia determined the cause to be human error.
However, Kaczyński's twin brother Jarosław, chairman of the Law and Justice (Pis) party, which was ousted from office in the latest elections in October, suspected a Russian bomb attack.
The new pro-EU government government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk dissolved the previous commission immediately after taking office in December.
It accused it of having unnecessarily wasted taxpayers' money with work that lacked transparency.
Now, a new probe is to investigate the activities of the previous enquiry into the crash, Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and his deputy Cezary Tomczyk announced on Friday in Warsaw, the PAP news agency reported.
Many conspiracy stories are circulating among PiS supporters. Since 2015, a commission chaired by the former defence minister Antoni Macierewicz has been working to gather evidence to support the theory of an attack.
The new enquiry will not investigate the causes of the crash, but scrutinize the work of the Macierewicz Commission, Tomczyk said.
Kosiniak-Kamysz said that he anticipated some political backlash: it was about confirming a thesis, not searching for the truth.
The actions "were intended to seek political advantage, not to strengthen the integrity of the Polish state," he said.
