The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) at a press conference in The Hague presented a report on the case of the Boeing MH17 shot down on July 17, 2014 in eastern Ukraine by a Buk missile, the BBC Russian Service reports, the broadcast was led by the publication NOS.
Investigators said they could no longer bring charges against any of those allegedly involved in the crash. At the same time, they stressed that they have «weighty indications that Vladimir Putin was directly involved in the decision-making on the Buk, but these indications do not reach the high bar of complete and irrefutable evidence.» In addition, it is impossible to investigate Putin's role in the disaster due to presidential immunity.
Investigators included at the press conference two intercepted telephone conversations involving Sergei Aksyonov, an aide to the Russian-appointed head of Crimea. Thus, during both calls in July 2014, the official repeatedly repeated that the decision to send the Buk to the Donbass was made by “no [not] a general, not a minister of defense,” but only “the very first one personally.”
«The scale of the process is amazing.» CIT researcher Kirill Mikhaylov talks about the trial in the MH17 crash in Donbass
The JIT also showed a recording of a conversation between Putin and the head of the self-proclaimed DNR, Igor Plotnitsky, in 2017. According to investigators, this conversation shows how personally the president was involved in the conflict in Donbass.
On November 17, the District Court of The Hague sentenced three of the four defendants in the Boeing MH17 case to life terms in absentia. Defense Minister of the self-proclaimed DPR Igor Strelkov (Girkin), retired GRU officer Sergei Dubinsky and former DPR commander Leonid Kharchenko were found guilty of Article 168 of the Dutch Criminal Code. </p>» data-type=»hint» data-slate-custom=»{«data-body»:"<p>Article 168 of the Dutch Criminal Code.</p>","body":"< ;p>Article 168 of the Dutch Criminal Code. </p>","isCreated":false,"migrationId":"1646998844495","html":null}»>aircraft destruction and murder of passengers. The defendants and Russia denied their involvement in the disaster.