Violetta Orlova15:22, 08.02.23

An international group investigating the case of the crash in 2014 received “convincing evidence” of the direct involvement of the President of the Russian Federation in the crash.

Russian President Vladimir Putin personally approved the import into Ukraine of the missile that shot down the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

The international group said that “there are good reasons to believe” that Putin signed the decision to allow the use of the Russian missile system that later shot down the aircraft. According to Reuters , prosecutors “have compelling evidence . “

According to them, the evidence, however, is not enough to initiate a criminal case.

Also, according to the group, the latest investigation revealed a lot about the decision-making process in the delivery of the missile system, but it is not possible to find out why the missile was fired and who pressed the button. According to the prosecutor’s office, the available evidence “is not specific enough to lead to convictions in court. That is why no new trials are being initiated at this time.”

Boeing 777 crash in Donetsk region – background

On July 17, 2014, over eastern Ukraine, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was hit by a Russian Buk missile, killing 298 people – 283 passengers and 15 crew members.

In January, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg accepted the complaint of Ukraine and the Netherlands against Russia. Having accepted the case for consideration, the Tribunal found that “the territories of eastern Ukraine controlled by the separatists from May 11, 2014 to at least January 26, 2022 were under the jurisdiction of Russia” . This means “the presence in this area of ​​a large contingent of Russian military personnel . “

On November 17, the District Court of The Hague confirmed that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down in 2014 by a  Russian Buk missile  from an agricultural field near Pervomaisk in the Donetsk region. The court also sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment three militants: ex-FSB officer Igor Girkin (Strelkov), Sergey Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko. According to the international investigation team JIT (Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Belgium and Ukraine), they were involved in the transportation of the Buk missile system, from which the plane was shot down. The court believes that the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger flight was a mistake by militants who mistook a passenger plane for a military one. At the same time, the Dutch prosecutor’s office stated that it would not demand their extradition from the Russian Federation., since the chances of such a step on the part of Moscow are zero.

The fourth participant in the case, Oleg Pulatov, was  found  not guilty by the court.

After the unleashed war against Ukraine, Moscow began to denounce international conventions, including the European Convention on Human Rights. The Kremlin has ceased to recognize the jurisdiction of the Strasbourg Court. However, the Netherlands contends that the crime was committed at a time when Russia was fully accepting the Convention and therefore any sentence should be binding on her.

(C)UNIAN 2023