Investigators find out who downed flight MH17 in 2014

MOSCOW, Russia - An international team of investigators said on Thursday that they had uncovered evidence that showed where the missile, which downed Flight MH17 emerged from.

On July 17, 2014, all 298 people onboard the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 were killed when the plane, which was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine.

Now, investigations claim that they have uncovered hard evidence that a Russian military missile system fired the missile that shot down flight MH17 in 2014 over eastern Ukraine.

The joint investigation team (JIT), which is looking into the incident and is made up of Dutch prosecutors and police and others from Australia, Malaysia and Ukraine held a press conference in The Hague on Thursday to release their findings.

The investigators released photo and video evidence that they claimed proved that they had identified the specific BUK system responsible for shooting down the plane. 

Wilbert Paulissen of the Dutch National Police said that the missile was from the Russian military's 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade, which is based in the Russian city of Kursk.

He said, “All the vehicles in a convoy carrying the missile were part of the Russian armed forces.”

Further, they added that they had “legal and convincing evidence which will stand in a courtroom” that the BUK system involved came from the 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade based in Kursk in western Russia.

In 2016, investigators first announced that that had evidence that the BUK system involved in the incident had crossed the border into eastern Ukraine from Russia and returned after the plane had been shot down.

At the time, prosecutors said that there were about 100 people under suspicion of direct or indirect involvement in the crime.

However, on Thursday, for the first time, the investigators appeared to confirm that the Russian military was complicit in the downing of the plane, at the very least by providing the missile system used. 

Before investigators released their official findings, the investigative website Bellingcat had pointed to involvement of the same brigade using open-source information.

However, Russia and its officials have denied all involvement in the incident.

Further, since the incident, Kremlin-linked media outlets have floated a range of implausible theories suggesting Ukraine was responsible for shooting down the plane. 

Russia has also used its veto in the UN to prevent an international tribunal being set up to determine guilt.

This means that any eventual trial would be held in the Netherlands under Dutch law.

Commenting on the probe, the chief prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said that the investigation was now in its “last phase” but could not say when he would be ready to file indictments. 

Westerbeke added that that number of people under suspicion of direct or indirect involvement in the crime had reduced to “several dozen,” but none were named. 

The prosecutor added that there was other evidence that would be kept secret until a court hearing begins and added, “We don’t want to tell everything we know because then we are opening our cards to the other side and we do not want to do that.”
Westerbeke even pointed out that investigators have asked the Russian authorities for information about the 53rd brigade but have been ignored.