The court in The Hague has agreed to requests from the lawyers of Russian MH17 suspect Oleg Pulatov to also hear other witnesses and experts. This is to take place in the coming months so that the substantive trial against the four suspects can begin in February.
Pulatov’s lawyers had formulated nearly three hundred investigative requests. These included questions about whether the Malaysian plane in 2014 was indeed shot down by a Buk missile.
They also wanted to have investigated whether the missile was fired from an agricultural field in eastern Ukraine, and whether suspect Pulatov was involved in shooting down MH17. So far, he is charged, among other things, with cooperating in transporting the missile from Russia to the Ukrainian rebel area.
The court agrees that several witnesses proposed by the defense may be heard. Among them is the commander of the Russian 53rd Brigade in Kursk, the military unit equipped with Buk missiles.
The prosecution had previously tried to hear these witnesses, but the request was rejected by Russia. Now that the request comes from the lawyers of the Russian suspect, the court thinks the situation may be different.
Co-defendant Sergei Dubinsky may also be summoned for questioning, including about intercepted phone calls concerning the downing of flight MH17. A linguistic expert must determine whether Pulatov can be heard in those conversations.
Pulatov is willing to answer questions from the court in writing, but the court refuses. It wants to question him in the courtroom.
Many other investigative requests have been rejected. For example, no further investigation will be done into the alleged presence of fighter jets. The court finds that the international investigation team, the Joint Investigation Team, has already sufficiently investigated this.
The Public Prosecution Service suspects three Russians and one Ukrainian of involvement in the disaster. Apart from Pulatov, none of the suspects — Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky, and Leonid Kharchenko — have made statements to the court.
In the crash of the Malaysia Airlines plane in July 2014, all 398 occupants died. Among them were nearly two hundred Dutch nationals.