Amsterdam - Perpetrators who shot down Malaysian Airlines MAS (MAS) MH17 over Eastern Ukraine in 2014 have been revealed.Prosecutors investigating the incident have identified missiles that drop MH17 from a Russian military unit.
MH17 crashed after being hit by a Russian-made missile on July 17, 2014. The plane with the Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur route was crashed in the eastern Ukraine region, which was then ruled by pro-Russian separatists. A total of 298 people on the plane, most of whom were Dutch citizens, were killed.
The head of the Dutch National Police Crime Division, Wilbert Paulissen, stated that the missiles were fired from a military vehicle belonging to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade on the Russian army, according to Reuters and AFP, Thursday (24/5/2018).
"It has come to the conclusion that BUK-TELAR who shot down the MH17 came from the Russian-based 53rd Anti-aircraft Missile Curve in Russia,"Paulissen said in a recent press conference in Bunnik, Netherlands.
"All the vehicles in the convoy carrying the missiles are part of the Russian Armed Forces," he added.
Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in this tragic incident. There has been no recent comment from Russia regarding this conclusion.
In a provisional development for the MH17 investigation, prosecutors reduced the list of suspect candidates from over 100 people to just a few dozen people. "We have a lot of evidence and a lot of evidence, but we're not done yet, there are still many things to do," says MH17 chief prosecutor Fred Westerbeke.
Westerbeke told reporters that investigators were not ready to reveal the identity of the suspected candidates, publicly or released the indictment. The question of whether the 53rd Brigade members played an active role in the MH17 shoot down action is also under investigation.
Westerbeke called for eyewitnesses, including local residents, to help investigators identify the individuals who operate the missile system. He also said he still needed information on the orders received by the missile shooters and who the officials responsible for the 53rd Brigade.
In a statement last year, the Dutch Foreign Ministry declared that the suspects identified in the shooting fall MH17 would later be tried in Dutch courts and under Dutch law.
The Joint Investigation Team comprising of Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine continues to work to gather evidence to prosecute the perpetrators who shot down the MH17. In a report in early 2015, the Dutch Safety Agency said the Boeing 777 was hit by Russian-made Missile missiles.
