President's Body Returns to Poland

Lech Kaczynski will lie in state at presidential palace in Warsaw
By Marie Morris,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 11, 2010 1:53 PM CDT
President's Body Returns to Poland
Former president Lech Walesa attends a Mass dedicated to the victims of the presidential plane crash in Gdansk, Poland, Sunday, April 11, 2010.   (AP Photo/Krzysztof Mystkowski)

Mourners filled the streets of Warsaw today as the coffin bearing the body of president Lech Kaczynski returned to the presidential palace, where he will lie in state for a week. Earlier, Vladimir Putin attended a memorial service for Kaczynski, his wife, Maria, and the 94 other victims of yesterday's plane crash near Smolensk. The Russian PM vowed to personally supervise the investigation, reports the BBC.

As the hearse bearing the flag-draped coffin arrived, the large crowd assembled outside the palace began to sing the national anthem. Besides the president and first lady, the leaders of the army and navy and numerous parliament members perished in the crash. Russian officials have said the pilots were warned that the plane, a Soviet-era Tupolev 154, was flying too low.
(More Lech Kaczynski stories.)

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