MH17 trial
NOS News - Domestic - yesterday, 19:27
MH17 trial: all evidence from file presented
Gert-Jan Dennekamp
reporter
The MH17 trial has concluded an important phase now that all the evidence from the file has been presented in court. The prosecution today gave a supplement to the main pieces of evidence that the court presented earlier. The role of Igor Girkin, one of the defendants, was addressed in detail. The prosecution tried to refute claims by the defense that their evidence contains disinformation.
No traces of another plane were found at the site where flight MH17 crashed. Separatists claimed immediately after the downing of flight MH17 that they had downed a Ukrainian fighter plane. Thereupon they jumped in the car towards the village of Grabovo, but there they only found remains of flight MH17. The prosecutor said today that other investigations have not yielded anything either.
The prosecution in the MH17 case relies to a large extent on wiretaps of the separatists. The transmitter masts data is also a goldmine, as was evident again today during the presentation of the PPO. In this way, the Justice Department knows where those involved were during the transportation of the weapon, the launching of the missile and its removal.
Witnesses cited
In the MH17 trial, the Prosecutor's Office today quoted a witness who was present at the launch site. According to this witness, the separatists were excited because they thought they had brought down an opponent's cargo plane. But they returned in low spirits when it turned out that they had downed a passenger plane.
Another witness said in a telephone interview that the plane was brought down by the men of 'Strelkov,' a nickname for Igor Girkin, one of the suspects.
'Girkin had important role'
The prosecution today went into detail about the role of Girkin, the self-proclaimed defense minister of the separatists. He had an important role in ordering the weapon, the prosecution argued again based on wiretapped conversations. He was also actively involved in the transportation of the BUK on July 17.
According to the suspect Pulatov, the rebels knew they were being bugged and only disinformation was spread in the conversations. Another suspect, Doubinski, has stated in the media that the phone taps were tampered with.
Village was under fire
The prosecution today stated how they verified the information in the conversations. The weapon used to bring down flight MH17 was needed because the rebels were under fire in the village of Marinovka. The Ukrainian Air Force bombed them on July 16, a day before the flight went down. Many dozens of separatists were injured and killed as a result.
"It's a fucking hell," says the fourth suspect, Khartshenko, in one of the overheard conversations, about the battle in the village. He lost ten men on July 16 and many more fighters were wounded. In a conversation recorded by his lawyers, Pulatov said that this too is disinformation. But the prosecution today presented several sources showing that the battle in Marinovka was fierce. Other facts about the battle - the deaths, injuries and loss of equipment - are all verifiable through open sources as well, the prosecution argued.
Pulatov also said he was not involved in air defense on July 17. But taped conversations today showed otherwise. He organized the air defense on July 16. And according to the prosecution also the day after.
The next important moment in the trial will be after the summer, when relatives will have their say. The trial will continue until at least the summer of next year.
Translated with
www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
MH17 - Die Billy Six Story (2016, german) 1h 15'
I remember from the tv-series Aircrash Investigations i listened to like litterally 100 times each episode 2008-2013 - including their own (some) fake narratives - but you learn enough that real investigations ALWAYS includes to collect ALL debris. (After I realized that the TV-series Aircrash Investigations uses blunt lies in some of the disaster events, the most infamous ones of course is 9/11, but also TWA flight 800 crash outside of - i stopped listening to the series after 2016)
