Evidence of the involvement of Putin and other Russian officials is not sufficiently specific to lead to a criminal conviction and that the investigation will continue without further prosecution.
Netherlands : Investigators have completed investigations into the downing of flight MH17 despite “indications” of Putin’s involvement
Prosecutors at the international investigative team announced today that they had discovered “serious evidence” that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized the use of a missile system used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014. .
However as stated evidence of his involvement Putin and other Russian officials are not sufficiently specific to lead to a criminal conviction and that the investigation will continue without further prosecution.
Russia has denied any involvement in the downing of the airliner, which killed all 298 people on board.
“The investigation has reached its limits,” said the prosecutor Digna van Boetselaar at a press conference in The Hague. “The findings are insufficient to prosecute new suspects.”
In November, a Dutch court convicted two Russian former intelligence agents and a Ukrainian separatist leader of murder for helping coordinate the Russian BUK missile system used to shoot down the airliner. The three men who were convicted in absentia remain at large.
At the time the plane was shot down, Ukrainian forces were fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province.
But in the broader context of sentencing the three men in November, the Dutch court ruled that Russia had de facto “total control” of separatist forces in Donetsk since May 2014.
Prosecutors announced today that they could not identify the specific responsibilities of soldiers from the Kursk-based 53rd Brigade who fired the missile that downed the plane.
They cited an intercom between Russian officials in 2014 as evidence that Putin’s approval was needed before the separatists made their request for equipment.
They additionally presented a conversation Putin himself had in 2017 with the Russian-appointed commander-in-chief of Lugansk province in which they discuss the military situation and the prisoner exchange.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, carrying out what it calls a “special military operation,” and in September announced it had annexed Donetsk province and three other Ukrainian provinces.
THE Piet Ploeg, who heads the foundation that represents the victims, expressed disappointment that the investigation was over, but congratulated prosecutors for presenting their evidence of Putin’s involvement.
“There’s not much we can do about it, Putin can’t be prosecuted,” he said, adding: “We want to know who was ultimately responsible and that’s clear.”
Ploeg’s brother, his brother’s wife and his niece were among the victims of flight MH17.
RES-EMP
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