ON DECRYPT
The international team investigating the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on 17 July 2014 over the separatist east of Ukraine revealed on Wednesday the identity of four suspects, three Russians and one Ukrainian. They are accused of taking part in the routing or activation of the Russian BUK anti-aircraft defense system, a missile hit the plane, which connected Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 298 dead. The four men will be tried for murder in March 2020. Europe 1 details the latest elements of this extraordinary investigation, announced at a press conference in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands.
Who are the suspects?
- Igor Guirkine , a former colonel of the 48-year-old Russian Intelligence Service, was one of the main separatist commanders at the beginning of the conflict with the Ukrainian army in 2014. This veteran of the Chechnya and Yugoslavia wars, nicknamed "Strelkov" ("Shooter") was Minister of Defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic. He was at the head of the pro-Russian fighters during the siege of Slavyansk, a bastion of separatists, finally abandoned to the Ukrainian army in July 2014. It was two weeks later that the flight MH17 was shot down. Dismissed from his post shortly thereafter, in troubled circumstances, Igor Guirkin returned to Russia. On Wednesday, he denied any involvement of separatist forces in the crash. "All I can say is that the Boeing was not shot by the rebels," he said.
- Sergei Dubinsky reportedly met Igor Guirkin during the first Chechen war. Like him, he was part of the pro-Russian militia in Ukraine. He was reportedly responsible for military intelligence in the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic, while being linked to Russian military intelligence, the GRU, according to Kiev authorities. According to the investigation site Bellingcat, it is he who would have requested the delivery of the BUK air defense system to Russia to support the separatists on the front. He reportedly supervised his transport to Ukraine and his return to Russia after the crash. He left the separatist territories in 2015, and would now live in the countryside near Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
- Oleg Poulatov was one of Sergei Dubinski's aides in charge of separatist military intelligence. The former 52-year-old Russian officer reportedly helped transport the BUK to Ukraine and ensured the safety of the area where the plane's debris fell after the crash. He currently resides in Russia.
- Leonid Khartchenko is the only Ukrainian among the four accused. The 47-year-old is already wanted by his country's justice for his participation in the conflict on the separatist side. He would have assisted with the transport and evacuation of the BUK system.
How will they be judged?
A trial will be held in March 2020 in the Netherlands, where 196 of the 298 passengers on the plane were nationals. A treaty was signed in 2018, between The Hague and Kiev, for the organization of the hearing. It will be held at the Schiphol court in the suburbs of Amsterdam. The four defendants will be judged "in the first place for causing the crash of the flight resulting in the death of all passengers on the plane.And second, they are prosecuted for the murder of 298 passengers," said Wednesday the prosecutor Dutch Fred Westerbeke, who heads the international investigation team.
International arrest warrants have been issued against the suspects, but they are likely to be tried in absentia. Russia and Ukraine refuse to extradite their citizens, and the Ukrainian wanted by Kiev can not be found. As for Igor Guirkine, he has already announced that he will not testify.
"I am realistic: the chance that they are present is low, but this trial is especially important for the relatives of the victims," acknowledged the prosecutor Fred Westerbeke. In fact, the president of a family association of the victims hailed the "courage" of the Dutch public prosecutor's office, which "spared nobody for political reasons". The mother of one of the passengers also said she was "happy that the trial could finally begin".
What do Kiev and Moscow say?
In the wake of announcements by the international investigation team, Ukrainian diplomacy called on the Russian Federation to acknowledge its responsibility and to begin to cooperate. Former President Petro Poroshenko, in power at the time of the tragedy, welcomed the latest information revealed. "The truth is like the sun, you can not hide it with the palm of your hand."
For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry has denounced "free accusations" aimed at discrediting the country, in line with its numerous denials. "No concrete evidence has been presented to support such illegitimate allegations", according to Moscow, which accuses investigators of relying on "questionable sources of information". "Russia will nevertheless continue to assist the investigation to establish the truth about the crash of flight MH17 and that the true perpetrators of what happened have been duly punished," concluded the statement of the Russian Ministry.