Europe

Autopsies begin on former Polish president, first lady

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Two hearses with the exhumed bodies of Poland's late President Lech Kaczyński and his wife, Maria Kaczyńska, are leaving the Wawel Cathedral area following their exhumations, in Kraków, Poland, early on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. The presidential couple' s remains were the first ones among 83 bodies to be exhumed for examination on a decision by prosecutors investigating anew the cause of the 2010 plane crash in Russia that killed the president, the first lady and 94 other prominent Poles. (AP Photo/Jarek Praszkiewicz) (The Associated Press)

FILE - An April 18, 2011 file photo taken in the vaults of Wawel Cathedral in Krakow, Poland, showing the alabaster tomb of the late President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria Kaczynska who were killed, with 94 other prominent Poles, in a plane crash April 10, 2010 in Smolensk, Russia. The bodies of the presidential couple are being exhumed after dark on Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, for examination on orders from the prosecutors, who are investigating the crash. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) (The Associated Press)

FILE - This Sunday April 11, 2010 file photo shows the wreckage of the Polish presidential plane which crashed early Saturday in Smolensk, western Russia. The bodies of former Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife are to be removed from their tomb in Krakow after dark on Monday Nov. 14, 2016, the first of exhumations planned on most of the 96 prominent Poles killed in a plane crash in Russia in 2010. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev, File) (The Associated Press)

A spokeswoman for Poland's top prosecutors says that autopsies have begun on the bodies of Lech Kaczynski and his wife as part of a new probe into the 2010 plane crash that killed the Polish president, his wife and 94 other people.

Spokeswoman Ewa Bialik confirmed on Tuesday that the autopsies had begun.

The probe was ordered by Poland's conservative ruling party, Law and Justice, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the late president's twin brother. The autopsies are an attempt to establish whether the crash in Russia was an accident or an assassination, as some Kaczynski followers believe. A total of 83 bodies are to be exhumed and examined through 2017.

Among other things, experts will be looking for traces of explosives and injuries that could result from an explosion.