“Found 29 steel fragments”: in the Netherlands reported details of the examination of the bodies of crew members MH17

During the court hearing in the case of the crash in 2014 of the plane following the flight MH17, the Dutch prosecutor Thijs Berger revealed new details of the forensic examination. In particular, he reported on the nature of the injuries sustained by the crew of the liner.

“29 steel fragments were found in the bodies of the crew members. One of the fragments was in the shape of a butterfly, ”RIA Novosti quoted Berger as saying. It is specified that this striking element was removed from the body of the aircraft captain.

The prosecutor added that so far in the wreckage of the Boeing 777 of Malaysia Airlines and the bodies of those killed as a result of the disaster, only 370 fragments of the estimated 8,000 that were to have been formed during the explosion of the Buk missile were discovered. However, only two of them visually resemble butterflies. One of them was found in the body of the captain of the vessel, the second - in the area of ​​the front of the cabin.

According to Berger, still not all damaged fragments of the aircraft have been found. He added that a particle was found in the body of another crew member, the composition of which is different from other fragments.

The prosecutor also said that, according to the findings of experts from the Netherlands Institute of Forensic Science, these fragments are more similar to the Buk missile of a later modification 9M38M1 than to the earlier type 9M38.

Recall that the crash of a Boeing 777 passenger plane, flying MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, occurred on July 17, 2014 in Donbass. In the area of ​​the disaster at that time, there was an active phase of hostilities between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and self-defense units of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. At the same time, airspace over the Donbass was open. When the liner crashed, all 298 people on board died - 283 passengers and 15 crew members. Among the victims were citizens of the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and other states.

Soon after the tragedy, a number of Western media and politicians blamed the events on the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass and Russia. To investigate the disaster, several countries, whose citizens died in a plane crash, formed a Joint Investigation Team (CCG). Ukraine took part in its work, but Russia was not allowed to investigate.

At the same time, the Russian side provided the SSG with declassified technical data of Buk missiles and information on radar surveillance of airspace in the specified area at the time of the tragedy, as well as the results of an experiment conducted by the Buk manufacturer - Almaz-Antey concern.

In 2015, it was concluded that the Malaysian Boeing was hit by a 9M38 missile. Moreover, the concern indicated that the last missile of this type was launched back in the USSR, they are not in service with the Russian Federation.

The tests were carried out using a decommissioned IL-86 aircraft and 9M38M1 rocket. This type of ammunition was chosen because the Dutch side insisted that it was this missile that shot down MH17. However, in Almaz-Antey they came to a different conclusion.

“This missile has heavy damaging elements - I-beams. Damage in the form of “butterflies” prevailed on the IL-86 hull, which 9M38M1 missiles with I-beams usually leave. However, it is known that inlets in the form of parallelepipeds, and not “butterflies,” were found on a Malaysian plane. Similar damage is left by a rocket of an older modification - 9M38, not equipped with I-beams, ”said Almaz-Antey experts.

Anonymous witnesses

In 2020, an investigation into the crash of MH17 was developed. On February 3, 2020, the Dutch national prosecutor charged four defendants in the case. Among them are three Russian citizens - Igor Strelkov, Sergey Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov. The last person involved is a citizen of Ukraine Leonid Kharchenko.

New hearings on the case began in Amsterdam on March 9. It was reported that on March 10, during a meeting, the Dutch prosecutor Dady Voi-A-Tsoi read out the testimony of an anonymous “witness M58”, who stated that he allegedly saw “Russian soldiers” before the launch of the Buk air defense system on the day of the crash of flight MH17.

At the same time, the prosecutor did not explain on what basis it was concluded that the conversation was between “Russian soldiers” and not Ukrainians who also speak Russian.

Later, the Russian Foreign Ministry drew attention to the anonymous status of witnesses and noted that this circumstance undermines the credibility of the court. At the end of April, an official representative of the department, Maria Zakharova, spoke on this subject.

“In fact, the decision on the anonymity of witnesses can have far-reaching consequences, including in terms of confidence in the validity of the final court decision, whatever it may be,” she said. The Foreign Ministry also expressed hope that the Dutch court will appoint additional examinations in the case of the crash of Boeing 777.

As the director of the First European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Alexey Paramonov later said, the international investigation did not finish the investigation and hastened to submit the materials to the court. The diplomat stressed that Russia has accumulated a lot of complaints about the work of the Joint Investigative Group, which he called "politicized, biased and one-sided."

“We hope that in the future the judges will pay attention to the shortcomings in the work of the investigators and will carefully double-check the evidence they have collected and will appoint additional examinations,” Paramonov said.

He added that the investigation did not conduct a real investigation into the role of Ukraine in the crash of flight МН17 "in connection with the Ukrainian authorities not closing the airspace for civilian flights over the zone of armed conflict."