Case MH17: Lawyers of the Russian suspect reject the version of the investigation

Lawyers of the Russian citizen Oleg Pulatov, who is accused of involvement in the shooting down of the MH17 passenger plane over Donbas in 2014, have challenged the main version of the investigation. They rule out the possibility that the plane was shot down from the Buk anti-aircraft missile system.

Thus, during the pre-trial hearings, the lawyers stated that a “six-year investigation was unsuccessful” being conducted by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which includes representatives of the Netherlands, Belgium, Malaysia, Australia, and Ukraine.

According to them, it was not possible to investigate the crash site.

“There was no access to the crash site for almost four months. This means that they could play with the evidence, or they could even throw it in,” one of the defenders suggested.

He also expressed doubts about the main version of the investigation – about the shooting down of the plane by a missile from the Buk complex.

“The main scenario was adopted very soon – very quickly the investigation came to the conclusion that it was “Buk”. Everything that was made public was focused only on the script in which “Buk” appears. They never questioned witnesses from the Ukrainian army or witnesses that the plane was shot down by a fighter. We ask for further investigation,” the lawyer said.

It will be recalled that a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 operating flight MH17 crashed over the Donetsk region in July 2014. Then 298 passengers died. Subsequently, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) found that the plane was shot down by Russian anti-aircraft missile systems “Buk”.

Natalia Tolub