Suspect in MH17 case arrested in Donetsk – media

According to the Air Force, the separatist was arrested by “DPR law enforcement officers” and is being held in a pre-trial detention center on Kobozev Street in Donetsk.

In Donetsk, separatist Leonid Kharchenko (Mole call sign) was arrested, who is tried in absentia by a court in the Netherlands on charges of shooting down a Malaysian Boeing near Donetsk. This was reported by the BBC on Thursday, May 14.

Kharchenko was arrested near his Donetsk home on March 11 in another criminal case and sent to custody. He is now being held in the pre-trial detention center of the “DPR Ministry of Justice” on Kobozev Street, 4.

“The charges are ridiculous, allegedly participating in an illegal search in 2014 and illegal possession of weapons. According to the first point, the victims have no complaints against him. According to the second, this pistol was delivered to him in 2019 at the Ministry of Security of the Status to guarantee personal safety in relation to case MH17 “. , – a person familiar with the case of the arrested Kharchenko told the publication.

Air Force interlocutors believe Krot was detained so that he would not be kidnapped by the Ukrainian special services, as was the case with Vladimir Tsemakh, also considered an important participant in the history of the Boeing MH17 crash.

“It can be protected in such a cruel way, but this is a very strange method of protecting a person,” says another militant.

Before the outbreak of hostilities in the Donbass, Kharchenko was an engineer at Konstantinovka. In the spring of 2014, he joined the “DPR” militants, took the call sign “Mole” and began working under the leadership of Sergei Dubinsky, a retired officer of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate.

Soon, in the summer of 2014, Kharchenko protected the Buk facility near the launch site south of Snezhnoye. Perhaps he coordinated the transportation of Buk from Donetsk to the launch site and his evacuation back to Russia.

Remember that the identity of the key person involved in the MH17 case was previously established. “Vladimir Ivanovich,” who appeared in the separatists’ telephone conversations on the eve of the plane crash, is the deputy head of the Russian FSB border service, Colonel General Andrei Burlaka, investigators say.

It was also reported that the Chief Prosecutor MH17 resigned in the Netherlands. Fred Westerbeck has been the lead prosecutor in the MH17 case since 2014. He goes to another job.

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