MH17 Crash Investigators Name 4 Suspects, Hearing Planned For March - Victim Relative

Investigators of a 2014 crash of a Malaysia Airlines-operated Boeing MH17, whose conclusions Russia has called baseless in the past, have told victims' relatives names of four suspects, the court hearings will begin in early March 2020, Silene Fredriksz, a relative of one of the crash victims, told reporters

NIEUWEGEIN (The Netherlands) (UrduPoint news / Sputnik - 19th June, 2019) Investigators of a 2014 crash of a Malaysia Airlines-operated Boeing MH17, whose conclusions Russia has called baseless in the past, have told victims' relatives Names of four suspects, the court hearings will begin in early March 2020, Silene Fredriksz, a relative of one of the crash victims, told reporters.

The relatives were told the names of four people, three Russians and one Ukrainian Girkin, Pulatov, Dubinsky, Kharchenko, Fredericks said after a meeting with investigators.

According to her, the investigators plan to disclose more names in the future, but she did not specify the number.

The hearings are scheduled to begin on March 9 next year, Fredericks said.

The Boeing, which was on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. All 298 people, mostly from the Netherlands, who were on board the plane were killed.

The Dutch-led joint investigation team (JIT), which does not include Russia, concluded that the plane had been allegedly downed by a Buk missile that belonged to the Russian Armed Forces. Russia has stressed that it gave the Netherlands radar data and documents proving that the missile belonged to Ukraine, but the information was not taken into account.

The Russian Defense Ministry has said that all missiles like the one, whose engine the Dutch-led commission showed, were decommissioned after 2011.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that the accusations against Russia were baseless and the investigation was biased and one-sided. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed out that Russia was excluded from an investigation of the crash in the east of Ukraine, and Moscow could only recognize the results of the probe if it was a full-fledged participant.