NIEUWEGEIN, June 20: The international investigative team has on Wednesday said three Russians and one Ukranian are slated to face murder charges over the deaths of about 298 people abroad in Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 that was shot down back in 2014 over eastern Ukraine.
According to Dawn news reports, the suspects are expected to be prosecuted in absentia in proceedings slated to begin next March in the Netherlands. Dutch authorities have stated with the inquiry team, Russia hasn’t cooperated well and is also not likely to surrender defendants.
“These suspects are seen to have played an important role in the death of 298 innocent civilians,” Dutch Chief Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said.
“Although they did not push the button themselves, we suspect them of close cooperation to get the (missile launcher) where it was, with the aim to shoot down an airplane.”
However, the Russian foreign minsitry has denied it hadn’t cooperated with the inquiry while on Wednesday stating the probe was intended to wrack reputation of Russia.
In an official statement, the Russian foreign ministry said, “Once again, absolutely groundless accusations are being made against the Russian side, aimed at discrediting the Russian Federation in the eyes of the international community.”
In a letter to parliament, Ferdinand Grapperhaus, Dutch justice minister, said the Netherlands had adopted unidentified “diplomatic steps” against Russian for failing to failing to comply with the legal requests or offering incorrent information.
On July 17, 2014, MH17 was shot over a pro-Russian separatists-led territory in the eastern Ukraine as they found it flying to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam. Everyone abroad were dead.
An international investigatoin team led by Dutch was tasked with assigning the criminal responsibility for the aircraft’s destruction, who named four suspects Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, Russians Sergey Dubinsky, Igor Girkin, and Oleg Pulatov. International arrest warrant for these four had been already issued, they said.
The Ukranian authorities have said they would make efforts to arrest Kharchenko – suspect to be believed on their territory.
“The Russian Federation must now cooperate fully with the prosecution and provide any assistance it requests,” British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said
In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin has termed the downing of the plane “terrible tragedy” but refuse to blame Moscow for the event.
