The Kremlin on Thursday rejected the findings of international prosecutors investigating the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, who said they had found “strong indications” of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s involvement in the incident, Reuters reported.
In Moscow’s first response to their claims, Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov said Russia “cannot agree” with the investigation’s findings because it was not involved in the trial, and said investigators had not publicly presented evidence.
Prosecutors in The Hague said on Wednesday they had found “compelling evidence” that Putin approved the use of Russian BUK missile systems that were used to shoot down a plane over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
However, they said the evidence implicating Putin and other Russian officials was insufficient to lead to a criminal conviction and that they would close the investigation without further prosecution.
Evidence of investigators
Prosecutors said Wednesday they could not identify the exact soldiers responsible for using the missile system that downed the plane, which belonged to Russia’s 53rd Brigade in Kursk.
They cited wiretapping of Russian officials in 2014 as evidence that Putin’s approval was needed to approve the separatists’ request for the equipment.
In addition, they recreated a 2017 conversation between Putin and the Russian-appointed head of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which discussed the military situation and the exchange of prisoners.
The guilty verdict in the case of flight MH17
MH17 was shot down by a Russian BUK missile system while flying over eastern Ukraine from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew, including 196 Dutch nationals.
At the time, Russian-backed separatists were fighting Ukrainian forces for control of eastern Donbas.
In November, a Dutch court found two former agents of Russian special services and a Ukrainian separatist leader guilty of murder for using a Russian BUK missile system to shoot down a plane. The three men who were tried in absentia are still at large.
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Source: Hot News
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