KRAKOW, Poland, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- The body of Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski, prime minister of the WW II exiled Polish government, was exhumed Tuesday in an investigation into his death in 1943.
Sikorski and two members of the British parliament were killed during World War II when their plane crashed just after takeoff from Gibraltar. While a British investigation determined that the crash was an accident, many Poles believed Sikorski was deliberately killed, the Financial Times reports.
His body was removed from its tomb in the cathedral in Krakow Polan. Janusz Kurtyka of the Institute of National Remembrance said the aim of the examination is to determine whether Sikorski was killed on the orders of the Soviet Union.
Many theories have been put forward about Sikorski's death. They include that he was killed by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin because he had asked for an investigation of the Katyn Forest massacre of Polish officers or because he might have prevented the Soviet takeover of Poland, and that he was killed by British and Polish Communist sympathizers.
Sikorski is to be reburied Wednesday in a new uniform. The results of the forensic examination may not be available for months.
