Exhumations of the remains of two victims of the 2010 Polish presidential plane crash in Smolensk, western Russia, are being carried out this week. On Tuesday, the remains of Stefan Melak were exhumed at Warsaw’s Powązki cemetery.

His brother, Andrzej Melak, told the Polish Press Agency that this was a necessary move.

“I hope that the exhumation will provide answers to many of the unresolved issues which have not been explained so far due to the failures in the proceedings conducted by military prosecutors. I hope that the grave which I visit is indeed my brother’s resting place,” he said.

The exhumation of the body of Tomasz Merta, a former deputy minister of culture, is planned for Thursday.

The bodies will be examined by an international team of experts at the Faculty of Forensic Pathology of the Warsaw Medical University.

Last week, the remains of former President Lech Kaczyński and his wife Maria, were exhumed and reburied in Kraków.

A total of 96 people were killed in the plane crash. In previous years, nine exhumations were carried out. It turned out that six bodies were wrongly identified and consequently buried in the wrong graves.

As part of a new investigation into the 2010 tragedy, 83 exhumations are planned — of all of the victims of the crash whose remains were not cremated.