MH17 trial: Ukrainian experts to analyze recording of suspect's meeting with lawyers

"At the court hearing, we listened to the recording of Pulatov's meeting with the lawyers. We will analyze this recording and submit our conclusion to the Netherlands," Deputy Prosecutor General, Head of Ukraine’s group of the Joint Investigation Team Giunduz Mamedov said in a commentary to an Ukrinform correspondent.

The Deputy Prosecutor General added that he would also be interested in the answers of suspect Dubinskiy to the questions within the framework of the trial.

"As a prosecutor, I will be interested in the answers of suspect Dubinskiy to the questions he will be asked within the trial... The issues of the suspect's participation in the trial, his interrogation, etc. should be resolved through international legal assistance and Russia’s conscientious fulfillment of its obligations under international law. We have not seen this for more than six years of investigation," Mamedov said.

The recording of the testimony of one of the four suspects in the downing of Flight MH17, Oleg Pulatov, was heard at a recent court hearing. The prosecution requested the full version of the recording for review.

The next court hearing in MH17 trial will take place on November 12. The prosecution will have the floor.

In March 2020, the District Court of The Hague began the consideration of the case of the downing of flight MH17 in the sky over Donbas.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over conflict-hit Donbas in July 2014. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. All of them died. The international Joint Investigation Team reported that the plane had been shot down from a Buk missile system that belongs to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Kursk.

On June 19, 2019, the JIT named four suspects believed to be involved in the transportation and combat use of the Buk missile system, from which MH17 flight had been downed. Three of them are Russians: Igor Girkin (Strelkov), former colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence service and former so-called defense minister of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic"; Sergey Dubinskiy, general (at the time of downing – colonel) of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and head of the so-called "Main Intelligence Directorate of the Donetsk People’s Republic"; Oleg Pulatov, lieutenant colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. The fourth suspect is Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian civilian, who fought on the side of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic."

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