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Russian authorities to prosecute Polish plane crash plunderers

Other News Materials 8 June 2010 16:42 (UTC +04:00)
Authorities in Moscow have charged four airmen with stealing from the wreckage of the plane crash which killed Polish president Lech Kaczynski and 95 others in April, the news agency Interfax reported Tuesday.
Russian authorities to prosecute Polish plane crash plunderers

Authorities in Moscow have charged four airmen with stealing from the wreckage of the plane crash which killed Polish president Lech Kaczynski and 95 others in April, the news agency Interfax reported Tuesday.

The air force members had admitted to stealing four credit cards from the crash's victims and withdrawing some 1,500 euros ( 1,800 dollars), Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the investigative authorities in Moscow said, DPA reported.

The men, three of whom already had criminal records, were being kept under surveillance but had not been arrested, he said.

If convicted they face up to five years in detention.

According to Markin, they had been charged with theft rather than plundering. Russia wanted to apologise to Poland and make good the damages, Markin continued.

Three credit cards had been among the men's possessions and a fourth had been retained by a cash machine, according to Markin.

Polish officials said on Sunday that the men had taken money from the bank account of cabinet minister Adrzej Przewoznik. There had been a total of 11 illegal transfers from his bank account since he was killed in the crash.

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