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The judges, who are considering the case of the crash of Malaysia’s Boeing MH17 flight over the occupied Donbas in 2014, decided to focus on the major version of the disaster presented by the international investigation team.
The Hague District Court rejected defense attorneys’ request for additional time to study alternate versions of the crash of the Malaysian plane MH17 flight, which was shot down in the sky over the occupied Donbas in 2014.
This was reported by Reuters.
The tribunal will focus on the main version presented by the international investigation team, Interfax writes.
At today’s meeting, the judges announced a decision on the requests of the lawyers of one of the four defendants, the Russian Oleg Pulatov, and the prosecutor’s office.
One of the judges who examined the case said that the defense had requested many additional investigations. However, the task of the court is “to ensure that the consideration of the case is carried out without loss of time,” he said.
According to Ukrinform, most of Pulatov’s defense requests were rejected, but the request to question various experts and witnesses who could testify about Buk and whether Pulatov was involved in his transportation was granted. In addition, the court allowed the lawyers of the victims’ families to have access to a digital version of all the materials in the case.
Pulatov is one of four defendants in the Boeing crash in Malaysia. Besides him, two Russians are involved in the case, the “former DPR Defense Minister” Igor Girkin and the former DPR intelligence chief Sergei Dubinsky, as well as a Ukrainian, the commander of the “DPR GRU” reconnaissance battalion. Leonid Kharchenko. All of them on June 19, 2019, the international investigation team announced suspicions of participation in the disaster.
Previously, Pulatov did not admit his guilt. Its defenders have filed numerous motions demanding that the court consider alternative versions of the Boeing crash in Malaysia. Girkin and Dubinsky in June 2019 stated that they refused to testify at trial.
In early November, Pulatov’s lawyers spoke during three days of hearings. The Russian defense demands a re-examination of the experts and witnesses in the MH17 case, as well as a re-examination of all the evidence.
On November 3, Pulatov responded to questions from his lawyers. The videotaped meeting was shown in a Dutch court in the case of the MH17 accident. He said that the day before the plane crash, he was in the area of the Stepanovka and Marinovka settlements, which are located not far from the crash site.
Boeing 777, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on flight MH17, crashed on July 17, 2014 near Torez, Donetsk region. All 298 people on board died (citizens of the Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand).
According to the findings of the international investigation team, flight MH17 was shot down from the Buk compound in the territory controlled by pro-Russian militants. After the plane crash, the weapon was returned to the Russian Federation. Investigators clarified that the Buk came to Donbass from the Kursk region. In May 2018, the Netherlands and Australia formally blamed Russia for the MH17 accident. Russia denies its involvement in the catastrophe.
On March 9, 2020, the Hague District Court began hearing the case of the plane crash in Malaysia.
