BY JON
JACKSON ON 2/8/23 AT 12:23 PM EST
The main picture shows the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 near the village of Rassipnoe, Ukraine, on October 15, 2014. The smaller image shows President Vladimir Putin during a ceremony on February 2 in Volgograd, Russia. An international investigation implicated Putin with involvement in supplying the missile that shot down flight MH17.PHOTOS BY DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
A team of international
investigators on Wednesday said they had found that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely
signed off on the decision to supply the long-range anti-aircraft missile systems
that shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
The Joint Investigation Team said during a
news conference in The Hague that their conclusion regarding Putin's alleged
role was based on recorded telephone conversations involving Russian officials.
According to the prosecutors, the officials said in the recording that the
decision to provide the missile systems could only be made by Putin.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a Boeing 777, was shot
down by a Russian-made missile on July 17, 2014, over eastern Ukraine in
territory controlled by Russian separatist forces. The flight had departed from
Amsterdam and was headed to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. All 298 passengers and crew
members on the flight were killed.
According to the BBC, the Joint
Investigation Team said Russian officials on recorded telephone conversations
stated a decision to provide military support to the Russian separatist forces
in 2014 "rests with the president."
"There is concrete information that the
separatists' request was presented to the president [Putin], and that this
request was granted," the investigators said.
The team said they had found "strong
indications" that Putin approved of the weapons supplied to the
separatists that took down the flight. However, prosecutors said the evidence
"was not concrete enough" to warrant a new prosecution.
Previously, a Dutch court in November
convicted two former Russian security service officers and a Ukrainian
separatist leader of murder for their roles in the aircraft's destruction. The
three men were sentenced to life, but they have not been arrested or
extradited.
The Joint Investigation Team—made up of
members from the Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Belgium and Ukraine—noted in
Wednesday's announcement that Putin enjoys immunity due to his position as
leader of Russia. Russia has also long denied any responsibility for the
incident.
Following Wednesday's
announcement from the Joint Investigation Team, Ukrainian
Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said he could be pursuing legal action
against Putin for his alleged role in the shooting down of the flight.
The conclusion of the Joint Investigation Team on the downing of MH17 flight: the RF's president was the one to give the criminal order to supply weapons to the so-called DPR and LPR. This was the root cause of the tragedy that took the lives of 298 civilians. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/i3IWMba1qs
— Andriy Kostin (@AndriyKostinUa) February 8, 2023
Kostin wrote on Twitter that
the "difficulty of obtaining evidence and functional immunity"
prevents prosecuting Putin in national courts. Nevertheless, he said Ukraine
"will seek to employ all the existing international legal mechanisms to
bring him to justice."
"We also continue to seek ways to hold the Russian
leadership accountable for the crime of aggression against Ukraine and other
international crimes," Kostin wrote. "Justice takes time, but what's
most important, it is inevitable. The MH17 case proves this once again."
Lawrence C. Reardon, a professor of political science at the
University of New Hampshire, explained how Kostin may be able to use the Joint
Investigation Team's findings in a future case.
"The Ukrainian
Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin stated in early February that he is hoping to
establish a special tribunal to prosecute over 65,000 Russian war crimes,"
Reardon told Newsweek in an
email. "While not yet supporting a special tribunal, the United States and
the European Union agree
that an international criminal prosecution must take place, perhaps by
appointing an interim prosecutor who collect evidence for future trials."
Reardon continued, "Undoubtedly, an interim prosecutor
would request the evidence collected by the Dutch Joint Investigation Team and
the murder of 298 passengers and crew aboard Malaysia Airline Flight 17 in
2014."
He said that while the Dutch investigators couldn't find
sufficient evidence against Putin to warrant further legal work, what they did
manage to document could be useful.
"Should Putin be forced to step down in the future, the
incoming Russian leadership might indirectly provide such evidence to put blame
on Putin and not the Russian state," Reardon said.
Newsweek reached
out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
https://www.newsweek.com/audio-indicates-vladimir-putins-role-downing-malaysia-mh17-flight-2014-1779909
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