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Vladimir Putin personally signed off on a decision to allow the Russian missile system that downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) into Ukraine, investigators say.
The international team investigating the 2014 downing has convincing evidence of the Russian president’s involvement, Dutch prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The BUK-TELAR missile system was used to shoot down MH17 on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, investigators said.
The team outlined their findings as they suspended their probe - saying they have insufficient evidence to launch any fresh prosecutions.
Dutch prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer said “the investigation has now reached its limit. All leads have been exhausted” as the team began laying out the evidence it has uncovered.
Wednesday’s presentation by investigators comes nearly three months after a Dutch court convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian rebel for their roles in shooting down the Boeing 777 on July 17 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew over eastern Ukraine. One Russian was acquitted.
None of the suspects appeared for the trial and it is unclear if the three who were found guilty of multiple murders will ever serve their sentences.
The convictions and the court’s finding that the surface-to-air Buk missile which blew the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur flight out of the sky came from a Russian military base were seen as a clear indication that Moscow had a role in the tragedy.
Russia has always denied involvement.
The Russian foreign ministry accused the court in November of bowing to pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors and the news media.
But the November convictions held that Moscow was in overall control in 2014 over the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, the separatist area of eastern Ukraine where the missile was launched from.
The Buk missile system came from the Russian military’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, based in the city of Kursk.
The Joint Investigation Team is made up of experts from the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine.
Most of the victims were Dutch. Ten were British nationals.
“The indications for close ties between the leadership of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Russian government officials raises questions about their involvement in the deployment” of the missile, the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service said on its website, citing intercepted phone calls between leaders of the breakaway region and “high-ranking Russian government officials held in the summer of 2014”.
As well as the criminal trial that was held in the Netherlands, the Dutch and Ukrainian governments are suing Russia at the European Court of Human Rights over its alleged role in the downing of MH17.
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