Dutch court resumed consideration of the disaster in the sky over the Donbas.
In the Netherlands, the process has been resumed on the case of destruction of the passenger plane “Malaysian airlines” in the sky over the Donbas on 8 March 2014. The defense again asked for a delay, and prosecutors were told about the system of encrypted communication used by commanders of the self-proclaimed DND.
hearings on the case of MH17, as almost any public event lately took place in compliance with social distancing. The judges were separated from each other by glass partitions, and the lawyers and the relatives of the victims were relatively evenly distributed around the courtroom.
the purpose of the meeting has not changed: the criminal process should give the answer to the question of the guilt or innocence of Igor Strelkov (Girkin) and three of his subordinates — two Russians (Oleg Pulatov, Sergey Dubinsky) and one Ukrainian (Leonid Kharchenko) — in the destruction of the aircraft “Malaysian airlines”.
none of the defendants at the trial is not present, however, the interests Pulatova imagine they hired lawyers — two Dutch lawyer, Russian lawyer Helen kutyina, the famous Russian viewers on the program “family matters”. The meeting was postponed twice, most recently on March 23 to protect Oleg Pulatova could get better acquainted with the case materials.
Pulatova Lawyers again asked for a delay, citing the epidemic of the coronavirus. They stated that such a complex matter could be adequately discussed on the phone, especially since the client communicates only Russian, and the remote communication through an interpreter is problematic.
in addition, they noted that considering the possibility of raising the question of the legitimacy of the proceedings to their client Dutch authorities, as he, being a party to the hostilities can count on “combatant immunity”.
after Hearing the defense arguments, the prosecution responded that delaying the process he is guilty Oleg Pulatov and need to delay the process once again, no.
the prosecution has even been proposed to highlight the case Pulatova in a separate proceeding. At the unveiling of its position, special attention was paid to prosecutors records, intercept telephone conversations of the leaders of the breakaway DNR and the commanders of their military units. It was noted their use of protected telephone communication, apparatus for establishing which are delivered from Moscow and cannot be purchased in the free market. Also, prosecutors had a long and thorough told why you can believe in the authenticity of the intercepted negotiations, and in their assumptions about the movement of Buk: mainly theory was based on trackmaintaining positions through their respective mobile platforms.
In response was sent the official document, containing a description of such pictures and related technical information. To see the photos was permitted only to the chief Prosecutor of the Netherlands in cases of terrorism, which, according to the judge, said that the information in the document is confirmed by information from other sources. The court asked the United States to declassify these images.
“Because I commanded a militia and was directly involved in that conflict, I feel a moral responsibility for these deaths,” he told the Times newspaper. However, he reiterated that the militia “did not down the aircraft”. On the question of whether his statement taken as an admission of guilt of the Russian military, Girkin said: “People can interpret it as they please”. Further comment from Igor Strelkov refused.
In late April, the study group Bellingcat has published the results of the investigation, which indicated: person in control of the transfer of anti-aircraft missile complex “Buk” on the territory of a neighboring country, could be Colonel General the Federal security service of the Russian Federation Andrey Burlaka, renowned combatants as “Vladimir”. Telephone negotiations “Vladimir Ivanovich” with the commanders of the armed formations of Donbass also was represented by the public Prosecutor at the meeting.
While a public trial gives you not very many surprises. If the revelation of this meeting can be called for more information about American satellite images, the “discovery” of the first — even March — the day can be called the phenomenon of “second “Beech””. If earlier after the investigation of the research group Bellingcat was considered that the transfer of destroyed aircraft “Beech” in Ukraine was a GRU officer Oleg Ivannikov, now the position has changed.
That is, according to the prosecution, from the territory of Russia was sent two sets, not one.
Continuation of the meeting scheduled for June 9.
Alexey Naumov
