Defense In MH17 Case Urges Investigation Into Leak Of Defendant's Phone Recordings

The defense in the MH17 Boeing crash case has asked the court to obligate Dutch prosecutors to investigate the leak of phone conversations of a defendant in the case, Sergey Dubinsky, to reporters, a defense attorney said on Thursday

SCHIPHOL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th April, 2021) The defense in the MH17 Boeing crash case has asked the court to obligate Dutch prosecutors to investigate the leak of phone conversations of a defendant in the case, Sergey Dubinsky, to reporters, a defense attorney said on Thursday.

Prosecutor Manon Ridderbeks of the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (PPS) admitted on Thursday during pre-trial hearings in Schiphol that the recordings of phone conversations of the defendant in the MH17 case had been leaked to reporters, adding that the PPS had fallen victim to a third party's illegal activity.

On Monday, the PPS told Sputnik that it was unaware of how journalists from the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation (NOS) obtained the leaked recordings. Via unknown sources, NOS reporters got hold of around 1,000 recordings of telephone conversations that Dubinsky held in July and August 2014 during and after the deadly plane crash in eastern Ukraine. The recordings were made by Ukrainian special services. According to the journalists, the recordings indicate that Dubinsky was not aware of the plane crash in the first hours after the tragedy took place.

Attorney Boudewijn van Eijck, who defends another suspect in the case Oleg Pulatov, asked the court on Thursday to task the state prosecutors with investigating this leak.

According to the lawyer, even the defense has no access to the leaked recordings, which is unacceptable.

The Malaysian Boeing crashed in July 2014 while flying over a conflict zone in Ukraine's east from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 people on board were been killed. A Joint Investigation Team (JIT), set up by Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine, was tasked with the investigations. The JIT claims that the plane was downed by a Buk missile belonging to the Russian armed forces. Russia, which is not part of the JIT, has consistently denied the allegations and offered its cooperation in the investigation but was denied access to the probe.

The trial of four suspects Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian national Leonid Kharchenko began in March in the Netherlands, but had to be adjourned over the COVID-19 pandemic. The hearings are still underway.

In particular, Russia has provided the Dutch investigators not only with Russian radar data but also the documents proving that the Buk missile, which hit the Boeing, actually belonged to the Ukrainian forces and was launched from a territory controlled by Kiev. The Dutch court confirmed the receipt of the documents at the first hearing.