Russian Servicepersons To Be Questioned Within MH17 Trial

On Wednesday, 25 November, the District Court of The Hague ruled that the servicepersons of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces should be invited as witnesses for questioning within the case of downing flight MH17 in the sky over Donbas. Thus, the judges partially granted the motion filed by the defence of one of the suspects, Oleg Pulatov.

Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said that questioning of Russian military would help find out whether they had been involved in the transportation of the Buk missile launcher, used to shoot down the plane.

In addition, the Court ruled that Sergey Dubinskiy, another defendant in the MH17 case, should be questioned. The judges also consider it important to question Pulatov himself.

“The Court has many questions for Pulatov. The Court considers it important to question the accused. With this in mind, we invite you to appear before the Court in the presence of the defence and the prosecutor’s office representatives. This is a normal court procedure. The Court will not send the questions in writing,” the judge said, responding to lawyers’ initiative to submit the questions in writing.

This was the last hearing in the MH17 trial in 2020. At one of the previous hearings, Pulatov’s address was shown.

Today, the Court rejected the request of Pulatov’s defence to investigate alternative versions of the crash of flight MH17.

Bohdan Marusyak