Four Russian servicemen have been detained on suspicion of stealing money from a top Polish official killed in April's Polish government plane crash in western Russia, a high-ranking Russian law enforcement source said.
The Soviet-made Tu-154 crashed near the city of Smolensk on April 10. All 96 people on board died, including President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and senior Polish officials. They had been due to attend a memorial ceremony for the victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre in which Soviet secret police killed thousands of Polish military officers.
"Four Defense Ministry servicemen have been detained on suspicion of stealing money from the [bank] account of a Polish delegation member from the Tu-154 Polish presidential plane that crashed near Smolensk," the source told RIA Novosti Monday.
The source added that the servicemen served in an Air Force unit but did not name their ranks and positions.
On Sunday, Polish government spokesman Pawel Gras accused three Russian police officers of illegally using the bank card of a top Polish official, Andrzej Przewoznik, who died in the Tu-154 crash, to buy goods in a store, but Russia denied the accusations.
Gras spoke about police officers, not servicemen. He told journalists Sunday that the three Russian special purpose police unit (OMON) officers who "had done this shameful deed" were "promptly detained thanks to cooperation between Poland's domestic security agency and Russian special services."
But Russia on Sunday called Gras's statements "sacrilegious and cynical," and the Russian Interior Ministry denied the accusations, saying no police officers from Smolensk had been detained over the issue.
Przewoznik had been the chief organizer of Katyn memorial events.
His widow told journalists earlier that some $2,000 disappeared from Andrzej's bank card, with the first transaction taking place on the day of the air crash, April 10, and two other transactions occurring in the two following days, also in Smolensk.