[ad_1]
AMSTERDAM: Judges hearing the case against four defendants in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine on Wednesday rejected a defense request for more time to investigate alternative explanations for the crash.
The MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down by a missile fired from territory controlled by pro-Russian rebels during fighting with Ukrainian government troops, international investigators say. All 298 people on board died, two-thirds of them Dutch nationals.
After years of collecting evidence, an international Joint Investigation Team (JIT) led by the Netherlands said last year that the missile launcher used to hit the civilian plane came from a Russian army base across the border.
The Dutch government holds Moscow responsible, and three Russians and one Ukrainian are on trial for murder. None of the suspects are in custody. One, the Russian Oleg Pulatov, is represented in court proceedings; the other three are being tried in absentia.
Russia has always denied participation and promoted a number of alternative theories, which the researchers rejected as not supported by evidence.
Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said the defense had not provided a clear alternative scenario to investigate, while information on various other possible explanations was already part of the case file.
Steenhuis said the court would like to hear from Pulatov in person and would not put questions to him in writing as requested by his lawyers.
He added that the court would also like to hear from the other suspects, the Russians Sergey Dubinsky and Igor Girkin, and the Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, who have never cooperated with the court.
The court also requested a new cross-examination of the witnesses who reported seeing the missile launcher on July 17, 2014, as well as the owner of the range from which the missile is believed to have been launched.
The judges also ruled that a new effort should be made to speak with the leader of Russia’s 53rd brigade, who has been identified by investigators as the one who transported the missile launcher.
The hearing of the case will resume on February 1, 2021.
Last month, Russia dropped discussions of liability for the accident with the Netherlands and Australia, saying the countries were not really interested in establishing the truth and had started legal proceedings against it.
– Reuters
[ad_2]
