Prosecutor Ridderbecks said two witnesses saw the missile launch on Flight MH17
Photo: Maxim Zmeev / Reuters
The prosecution in the case of the crash of the Malaysian Boeing 777 over Donbas has two anonymous witnesses who saw the launch of a rocket on the liner on the day of the disaster. Prosecutor Manon Ridderbeks stated this at a hearing in a Dutch court, RIA Novosti reports.
The prosecutor insisted on the version that flight MH17 was shot down by a Buk anti-aircraft missile system (SAM) from the side of the village of Pervomayskoye, at that time controlled by the forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). He stated that the air defense missile system was taken to the village by order and accompanied by four accused: former DPR Defense Minister Igor Girkin (Strelkov) and three of his subordinates – Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko.
“This follows from the route that we recreated in detail, based on data from the radio communications, testimony of witnesses, publications in social networks, as well as videos and photos of Buk,” Ridderbecks said. He added that this version is also confirmed by intercepted telephone conversations.
Earlier it became known that the court in the Netherlands rejected the request of the defense in the case of the crash of MH17 to provide all documents relating to the testimony of witness S45. The said witness stated that the plane could not have been a Buk air defense missile system. Hearings in the case resumed on December 20 at the Schiphol specially guarded complex.
The trial of the MH17 plane crash began in the Netherlands on March 9, 2020. The Boeing 777 of Malaysian Airlines, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed on July 17, 2014 in the territory controlled by the authorities of the self-proclaimed DPR. There were 298 people on board, all of whom died.
