Dutch prosecutor claims Buk missile might have been used in downing MH17 flight: Report

The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has claimed that the MH17 plane was targeted by a Buk missile that belongs to the Russian armed forces. The Dutch investigator Manon Ridderbeks on Tuesday, December 21, has stated that investigators involved in the MH17 case have claimed that no other than the Buk missile system would have shot down the plane, reported Sputnik. The prosecutors had previously mentioned that the plane was targeted by a missile from the Pervomayskoye settlement. 

The new revelation has been made in the investigation being conducted in the case wherein the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 which was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur had crashed on July 17, 2014 in Ukraine. The investigation of the MH17 crash in which 298 passengers and the crew had lost their lives, has been carried out by Dutch prosecutors and the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT), as per the Sputnik report. The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has alleged that the plane was downed by a Buk missile belonging to Russian defence forces. The Russian authorities have denied the claims of JIT. As per the Sputnik report, Russia has also conducted its own investigation showing that the plane had been downed by a Ukrainian Buk missile. 

Four people accused in the MH17 crash case

Russians Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko have been accused of causing the plane crash, in the court hearing on the MH17 incident. None of the four accused have appeared before the court trial and only Oleg Pulatov has lawyers representing him in court, according to AP. In the court hearing on Monday, December 20, prosecutors began explaining the evidence and their indictment to judges in the murder trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian charged with involvement in downing Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. As per the AP report, prosecutors will take three days to explain to the judges at hearings in a top-security courtroom, on the outskirts of Schiphol Airport. The trial began in March 2020 with the reading of the names of all the people who lost their lives when the plane crashed in 2014.

(Inputs from AP)

Image: AP