Dutch court to prosecute four people with murder over MH17

The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service (Nederlands Openbaar Ministerie / OM) will prosecute four suspects with murder for the fatal crash of Malaysia Airlines MH17. Four commanders, three Russians and one Ukrainian, have allegedly been involved in the downing of the Boeing 777 (9M-MRD) that was shot down by a surface-to-air missile, resulting in the death of 298 passengers. 

The lawsuit is expected to start on 9 March 2020. The suspects are three Russians, Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and one Ukrainian, Leonid Kharchenko. In the period of the disaster, Girkin was Minister of Defence of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Dubinsky was Head of Intelligence.

The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has evidence that rebels deliberately shot down the Malaysia Airlines aircraft and that Dubinsky gave the order for the shooting.

The JIT said it would issue national and international arrest warrants Wednesday for the four suspects.

Read: The Role of Sergey Dubinsky in the Downing of MH17 (Bellingcat)

In 2015, Bellingcat stated that the Russian BUK-missile system which shot down flight MH17 was transported to Ukraine by the Second Battalion of the 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade, coming from the area of ??Kursk in Russia. The battalion consisted of about a hundred soldiers, but Bellingcat knew how to reduce the number of soldiers involved to about twenty men, says NOS. One of them is the commander of the 53rd brigade. Because of his position, “he has certainly played a role in the downing of flight MH17 because his brigade has delivered the “weapon”, Bellingcat is quoted on the NOS site. Also involved are “some very experienced soldiers” who had been trained to operate a BUK-missile system.

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