New suspects can appear in 2023 – Chief Investigator of MH17 case
Digna van Butzelaar, the Head of an investigation team for the MH17 case has declared that the prosecution is satisfied with the decision made by the Hague Court on Thursday, and does not rule out that new results of the ongoing investigation will be reported in 2023.
Source: European Pravda; van Butzelaar, in a comment for Interfax Ukraine news outlet.
Quote: "We are very satisfied with this decision, especially because there were so many factors. We recollected how this happened, that it was "Buk" anti-aircraft missile system shipped from Russia, that the missile was launched from a field nearby Pervomaiske. We did our job well. I think this is very important for families and friends [of the victims]," she stated.
While commenting on a verdict of acquittal regarding Oleg Pulatov, one of the suspects, Digna van Butzelaar has claimed that she does not consider this a mistake. "We have just received the decision in a full format; it is a big stack, we need to discuss it, and then we are going to decide. We have two weeks for this."
Regarding the state of investigation, she has reported that, at the moment, it concerns the crew of the Buk anti-aircraft missile system, from which the MH17 plane was shot down.
"We think that we will be ready to talk about this at the beginning of a new year or in spring," she said.
Previously: The District court of the Hague sentenced Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinskiy, and Leonid Kharchenko to life imprisonment on 17 November for their part in shooting down Malaysian MH17 passenger plane over Donbas in summer 2014. The suspects are to be arrested. The Court ruled that they should compensate more than €16 million to families of the killed people.
Pulatov was acquitted, even though he was Girkin’s deputy and passed instructions to other suspects on how to evacuate the Buk system.
The Hague Court has also admitted that Russia was maintaining control over "DPR" [self-proclaimed and non-recognised Donetsk People’s Republic – ed.] when the MH17 plane was shot down.
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