“Although we are talking about strong indications, the threshold for complete and conclusive evidence is not reached” concerning the role of the Russian president in the crash, prosecutors of the joint investigation team announced.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
Vladimir Putin probably authorized the supply of the missile which killed the flight to the flight MH17 above Ukraine in 2014. However, the prosecutors in charge of the file announced, Wednesday, February 8, that the evidence was insufficient to justify new proceedings. “There are strong indications,” according to the joint investigation team (JIT) investigating the drama, that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin himself, had decided to send the missile to Ukrainian separatists.
However, “the investigation has now reached its limit, all the tracks have been exhausted, the investigation is therefore suspended,” noted the Dutch prosecutor Digna Van Boetzelaer, during a press conference in The Hague. “The evidence is insufficient for other proceedings,” she added. The JIT includes representatives of the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine, the countries most affected by the crash.
The Malaysia Airlines apparatus linked Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was affected on July 17, 2014, above the eastern part of Ukraine in the hands of the prorussian rebels. The explosion had caused the death of the 298 people on board.
vladimir Putin benefits from immunity as head of state
Investigators announced that Russian officials have postponed the decision to send weapons to Ukrainian separatists due to Mr. Putin’s presence to a commemoration of the landing in Normandy in France, in June 2014. The delay in the ‘Sending weapons took place “because there is only one who decides (…), the one who is currently at a summit in France”, explains a telephone conversation integrated into the survey and broadcast by the Investigators at the press conference.
Vladimir Putin, however, benefits from immunity as head of state, making it impossible to continue him, the investigators said. And to add: “Although we were talking about strong indications, the threshold of complete and conclusive evidence is not reached.”