Warsaw - Poland's prime minister said on Tuesday security for his daughter has been increased after she received many death threats vowing to avenge the “murder” of people killed in the 2010 crash of a government jet in Smolensk, Russia.
Donald Tusk, speaking at a news conference to address criticism that his daughter Katarzyna benefits from unjustified government security, said his family had received hundreds of death threats over the last two months.
Tusk quoted one of the messages received by his daughter, who is in her mid-20s and writes a popular fashion blog, as saying:
“Tell the ginger-haired mongrel that he will be killed for the Smolensk murder. You unemployed bitch, you will also be killed and all of your family, because the carcasses of the ginger-haired mongrel have to be eradicated 5 generations (back).”
The “mongrel” references reflected assertions by far rightists that Tusk's family background is not genuinely Polish and he does not really represent Polish interests. He has rejected such accusations as unfounded and absurd.
Tusk was described as a “ginger-haired bandit” by a 45-year-old chemistry lecturer arrested in 2012 on suspicion he planned to detonate a vehicle packed with four tonnes of explosives outside Poland's parliament building.
Police investigators said at the time that the arrested academic had “nationalist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic” motivations and that he believed people running the EU member country were “not true Poles”.
The crash of the government jet in Smolensk in April 2010 killed President Lech Kaczynski, the twin brother of the current opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and 95 top-ranking officials travelling with him.
Some members of the opposition said Tusk carried at least part of the blame for the crash because of his duty to provide security for the plane, an allegation he rejected.
Tusk quoted another message received by his daughter as saying: “I would like to ask you, if you already know where you want to hide and escape, because you must be aware that when we take down the mongrel's security then none of you will survive.”
He said this message had raised “real concern” among officers protecting his family.
Reuters