Monitoring Desk
THE HAGUE: An international team of investigators has suspended its criminal investigation into the incident of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014. The team said they have insufficient evidence to initiate any new prosecutions.
Dutch prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer on Wednesday said that “the investigation has now reached its limit. All leads have been exhausted” as the investigation team began laying out the evidence it discovered in its long-running probe.
In their summary of findings, Dutch prosecutors said that “there are strong indications that the Russian president Vladimir Putin decided on supplying” a Buk missile system to Ukrainian separatists. A Buk system was used to shoot down the MH17 flight on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew onboard.
Investigators suspend criminal probe
However, “Although several new pieces of information have been uncovered about various people involved, the evidence is not concrete enough at the moment to lead to new prosecutions,” they added.
Russia has always denied allegations of involvement in the shooting down of MH17.
The announcement comes around three months after a Dutch court convicted a Ukrainian and two Russian rebels for their roles in shooting down the Malaysian plane and killing all 298 people on board on July 17, 2014. The court acquitted one Russian.
No one of the suspects appeared for the trial, and it was unclear if the three who were found guilty of multiple murders would ever serve their sentences.
The convictions and findings of the court that the surface-to-air Buk missile that blew the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur flight out of the sky came from a Russian military base clearly indicated that Moscow had a role in the tragedy. Russia has always denied involvement. In November, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the court of bowing to pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors, and the news media.
The Joint Investigation Team comprises experts from the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium, and Ukraine. Most of the victims were Dutch. It had continued investigating the Russian Buk missile system crew that brought down the plane and those who ordered its deployment in Ukraine.
As well as the criminal trial in the Netherlands, the Ukrainian and Dutch governments are suing Russia at the European Court of Human Rights over its alleged involvement in the downing of MH17.
