Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The body of Poland’s last president-in-exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, was accidentally switched with the body of Tadeusz Lutoborski, the chairman of the Katyń Families organization, both of whom were victims of the April 10, 2010 airplane crash in Smolensk that killed 96 people, radio station RMF FM quotes unnamed investigators as saying.

Polish prosecutors haven’t confirmed the reports.

On Monday last week, the bodies of Mr Kaczorowski and Mr Lutoborski were exhumed. They were then transferred to the department of forensic medicine at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where the bodies were examined using a CT scan. DNA samples were also taken.

“We are still waiting for the DNA results, and this could take up to seven days,” the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Zbigniew Rzepa told TVN24 last week.

Earlier in October reports surfaced that an official from the Polish Foreign Ministry had made a mistake and misidentified the bodies during the post-crash identification process.
Polish online news provider Onet.pl reported that more exhumations could be in store, all of which are a result of procedural errors made in the aftermath of the catastrophe.

Mr Kaczorowski’s was the sixth body to have been exhumed so far. Prosecutors have decided to go ahead with the exhumation after analyzing medical records, which pointed to errors that could have led to victims’ bodies being misidentified.

In September, the bodies of two Smolensk victims were exhumed, one in Warsaw and one in Kraków. Following DNA testing, prosecutors confirmed that the bodies of Anna Walentynowicz, legendary activist of the Solidarity trade union movement, and Teresa Walewska-Przyjałkowska, vice-president of the Golgotha of the East foundation, had been switched.