Zero proof of deliberate intent in Smolensk disaster, opposition leader says

No evidence has ever been produced to confirm claims that the 2010 Smolensk air disaster was not an accident, an opposition leader said on Monday.

Sunday marked the 12th anniversary of the disaster, which killed Poland's then president Lech Kaczynski, his wife and numerous Polish politicians and military commanders when their aircraft crashed near a military airfield in Smolensk, western Russia.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Lech’s brother and leader of Law and Justice, Poland’s governing party, believes the crash was masterminded by the Russians in order to kill the president.

Official inquiries found pilot error to be the main cause of the disaster, but a committee, commissioned by the government, was due to publish a report on Monday that was expected to support claims the crash was an assassination.

Grzegorz Schetyna, a former leader of Poland's main opposition party, Civic Platform, dismissed the conspiracy theory.

"Over the past 12 years there have been no signs to confirm there had been an assassination in Smolensk," Schetyna said.

The assassination theory, he said, was a total concoction and was being used as a political tool against the opposition.

Schetyna also claimed that Kaczynski will now link the Smolensk crash to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"These absurdities... will be now put into the context of the Russia-Ukraine war," he warned.