Prosecution of four suspects for downing flight MH17
19 juni 2019 - Landelijk Parket

The Public Prosecution Service of the Netherlands will prosecute four suspects for bringing down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on the 17th of July 2014 killing all 298 passengers and crew. This decision was made on the basis of the investigation conducted by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), consisting of law enforcement agencies from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, Ukraine and the Netherlands. The announcement was made this morning in Nieuwegein following a meeting with surviving relatives of the victims who died in the plane crash.

The Public Prosecution Service will prosecute the following people:

Igor Vsevolodovich GIRKIN (48)
Sergey Nikolayevich DUBINSKIY (56)
Oleg Yuldashevich PULATOV (52)
Leonid Volodymyrovych KHARCHENKO (47)

The Public Prosecution Service alleges the four cooperated to obtain and deploy the BUK TELAR at the firing location with the aim of shooting down an aircraft. For that reason they can also be held jointly accountable for downing flight MH17. Today the Public Prosecution Service will issue international arrest warrants and placed them on national and international Lists of Wanted Persons. This is why the full names of the suspects have been announced and their photos shown. Three of the suspects have Russian nationality, the fourth is Ukrainian. As the constitutions of both countries do not allow extradition of nationals, extradition will not be requested.

Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov or Perviy, is a former colonel of the FSB, the Russian Federal Security Service. On the 17th of July 2014, Girkin was Minister of Defence and commander of the army of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. Flight MH17 was shot down from this area. As the highest military officer he maintained contact with the Russian Federation.

Sergey Dubinskiy, nicknamed Khmuriy, is a former military officer of the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service. Dubinskiy was one of Girkin’s deputies in 2014 and also head of the intelligence service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. He also maintained regular contact with officials in Russia.

Oleg Pulatov, also known as Giurza, is a former military officer of the Russian Spetznaz-GRU, the special units of the Russian military intelligence service. In 2014, Pulatov was deputy head of the intelligence service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and one of the deputies of Dubinskiy.

Leonid Kharchenko, also known as Krot, is the only Ukrainian suspect. He has no military background. He received his orders directly from Dubinskiy and in July 2014 he was commander of a combat unit in the Donetsk region. At that time, there was an armed conflict in that area between pro-Russian fighters and the Ukrainian armed forces.

The Dutch Public Prosecution Service will summon the four suspects, in order to account for their role in bringing down flight MH17 in court. They will be prosecuted for:

causing the crash of flight MH17, resulting in the death of all persons on board, punishable pursuant to Article 168 of the Dutch Criminal Code;
the murder of the 298 persons on board of flight MH17, punishable pursuant to Article 289 of the Dutch Criminal Code.
During the press conference, the Public Prosecution Service emphasised that it is only announcing the charges against the suspects; it is up to the court to pass judgment on those accusations.

The trial will start on the 9th of March 2020 at 10.00 AM before the District Court of The Hague, which will conduct the hearings at the Schiphol Judicial Complex. For the first part of the trial, the courthouse has reserved the period from the 9th until 13th of March, and also from the 23rd until 27th of March. The courthouse will advise on which of those dates -besides the 9th- the hearings will actually take place. The first part of the trial will not include the substantive details of the criminal case.

The criminal investigation of the JIT has been ongoing since 2014. On 28 September 2016, the JIT announced that flight MH17 was shot down by a missile from the 9M38 series, which was launched by a BUK TELAR system. The system was transported from the Russian Federation to an agricultural field near the town of Pervomaiskyi in Eastern Ukraine, from where the missile was launched. After firing, the system - with 1 missing missile - went back to the Russian Federation. On the 24th of May 2018, the JIT announced its conclusion the BUK TELAR used to shoot down MH17 came from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, a unit of the Russian armed forces from Kursk in the Russian Federation.

The JIT has issued a call for witnesses aimed at other persons who played a role in the downing of flight MH17, such as members of that 53rd Brigade. The investigation is ongoing and will continue to focus on the crew of the BUK TELAR and on persons who were an important link in the decision-making in the Russian Federation on military support to Eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Fred Westerbeke
Ladies and gentlemen,

We have called you here today to inform you that based on the investigative results of the Joint Investigation Team it has been decided that four suspects will be prosecuted for their alleged roles in the downing of flight MH17 on 17 July 2014. Therewith the Dutch criminal proceedings will start.

Almost 5 years ago, Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, with 298 passengers and crew, came down in Eastern Ukraine where an armed conflict was taking place. A war zone became our crime scene and that conflict continues to this day. This made tracking down the perpetrators a complicated matter. From the very first moment, many theories circulated about the cause of the disaster, and about who was responsible. Often these theories are based on mistrust, assumptions and regularly even on deliberately presented mistruths. This creates a lot of insecurity and restlessness among the next of kin.

In 2015, the Dutch Safety Board took the first important step to provide the relatives with clarity during this uncertain period. The board investigated the cause of the crash and concluded that flight MH17 had been hit by a BUK missile from the 9M38 series. Beside the question what happened on 17 July 2014, the JIT investigation also aimed for those who are responsible for this crime.

From day one, the JIT felt the urgency to do justice to the victims who died and to give answers to the relatives. However, we can only present investigation results that are fully supported by legal and convincing evidence and only when it is not contrary to the interests of the investigation. And furthermore, the only place that we can present all results is the courtroom.

We have always expressed confidence we will achieve our goal. That goal was and still is: to find out the truth about what happened and prosecute those responsible. Today I can tell you that the investigation is so far advanced that we will actually start prosecution of four persons whom we hold responsible for bringing the deadly weapon, a BUK-TELAR, to Eastern Ukraine. We will tell you who they are, but first I will show you what preceded it.

> Video 1: what preceded
This preceded the prosecution of the four persons whom the JIT hold responsible for bringing the deadly weapon, a BUK-TELAR, to Eastern Ukraine.

Over the past five years we have been able to reduce the number of persons whom we are investigating.

All these years, the investigation focused on various components, including forensic investigation, finding and questioning witnesses and experts, analysing radar and satellite images, looking at huge quantities of telecommunication data such as wiretapped conversations and analysing big data. The area of investigation in Eastern Ukraine is still inaccessible to the investigation team.

This means we have been unable to perform some investigative acts and that other investigation activities require more time than usual. However, we also received a lot of valuable telecommunication data and other relevant information from Ukraine in the past year. In the JIT, more than 50 investigators and some 25 members of the prosecutors office presently are working on the investigation. Some of the Dutch and Australian investigators are still permanently based in the field office in Kiev, were they work side by side with the Ukrainian investigators. The cooperation there is incredibly valuable.

Over the last few years we have made repeated calls for witnesses. These calls have yielded relevant information, which has further advanced the investigation. For that reason, at the end of this meeting we will make a new call for witnesses. The purpose of this witness call is not to gather more evidence against the four suspects that we are going to prosecute, but to deepen other investigative avenues. After all, the investigation continues.

The JIT realises that witnesses in this case are potentially placing themselves at risk. The safety of witnesses is therefore paramount and we take the duty to protect our witnesses extremely serious.

In addition to witnesses and telecommunication data, social media forms an important part of the investigation. The JIT screens a huge amount of data every day. We do this advanced analysis tools and specially developed computer programs to help us investigate this data as smartly as possible. Relevant information is then analysed and further examined. In this way we can progress our investigation more effectively.

How to proceed from here?
In the short term, we will formally request the Russian Federation to hand over the summons to the suspects who are in the Russian Federation. We will also ask them to question the suspects about the accusations. A similar formal request will be done to Ukraine with respect to the Ukrainian suspect.
The Public Prosecution Service is not going to ask for extradition the four suspects, because both the Russian as the Ukrainian Constitution prohibits extraditing its own nationals. We will ask the Russian Federation, again, to cooperate in legal assistance. Several requests for legal assistance, have still not been answered.

For example, we are still waiting for an answer to the question of where the BUK-TELAR, filmed in June 2014 in a convoy of the 53rd brigade in the Russian Federation, was located on and around 17 July 2014. We asked this question more than a year ago. Other questions the Russian Federation refuses to answer. For example, whether suspect Dubinskiy worked for the Russian government in July 2014. These are simple questions that can be answered quickly. We invite the Russian Federation to swiftly answer these and other questions from the requests for legal assistance.

Of course we are also open to a direct response from the suspects to the investigation team. All four suspects have previously given public interviews about their role in the armed conflict in 2014. If they also want to explain their role directly to the JIT, we would like to hear that. To this end, they can contact us via the communication channels that we will announce shortly.

Peter Crozier
The tragedy of MH17 has connected many different countries for many years now. Not only the five JIT states, but also the other grieving nations. These countries also mourn their victims and are still determined to bring this quest for truth and justice to a satisfactory conclusion.

Last week, representatives of the judicial authorities of grieving nations met in The Hague in a meeting organized by Eurojust, where they expressed their solidarity for the coming years.

Just like Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine, these representatives of Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, New Zealand, Romania, South Africa, the United States, the United Kingdom and have expressed their faith in the Dutch legal system. The Dutch Public Prosecution Service has gratefully accepted that faith in the knowledge that a complex international criminal case such as this one will demand a lot from us all in the coming years. As a JIT, we will also continue the investigation. The step we have taken today gives us the energy to continue. We will not let go. To progress, we are again appealing for witnesses today. My colleague Wilbert Paulissen will tell more about that.

The JIT seeks persons who have information about the following questions.
Were any of the persons in the photographs in Eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014?
Do any of the persons in the photographs have information about the use of the BUK-TELAR with the 3 and the 2 on the side on 17 July 2014?
Which soldiers were part of the BUK TELAR crew that shot down MH17.
It is unlikely the crew independently decided to go to Eastern Ukraine. We are looking for more information about who sent them there.

In the months prior to 17 July 2014, the leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic requested military support from the Russian Federation on several occasions.

These requests were made both by the so-called ‘Prime Minister’ Aleksander Borodai, as well as by the suspect Igor Girkin, the so-called ‘Minister of Defence’.

We know from our investigation the suspect Girkin was in contact about this matter with Sergej Aksyonov, the Russian leader of Crimea appointed by the Russian government. The Ukrainian peninsula was annexed by the Russian Federation in the spring of 2014.

Girkin spoke with one of the staff members of Aksyonov on 8 June 2014. In that conversation Girkin asks for military support from Russia, including a good anti-aircraft system with trained personnel. Please listen with us.

> Video 4: telephone conversations requesting military support
Telephone conversations that show that there were talks about military support between ‘the prime minister’ of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic and a high government official of the Russian Federation.

This conversation of 11 july 2014 shows that there were indeed talks about military support between ‘the prime minister’ of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic and a high government official of the Russian Federation. The anti-aircraft system that was already requested as from June 2014, was actually delivered after 11 July. We would like to know who was involved in the decision-making in the Russian Federation and with what mission the anti-aircraft system was sent to Ukraine.

Witness appeal June 2019: BUK TELAR crew

Telephone intercepts
In 2015, the JIT released an intercept of a telephone conversation in which suspect Dubinsky asks if ‘it’ has come with a crew. Apparently, ‘it’ refers to the BUK TELAR which belonged to the 53rd Anti Aircraft Missile Brigade from Kursk in the Russian Federation.

  (July 17 2014, 09:08 AM)

Based on this conversation, and other information, it can be assumed that both the BUK TELAR and its crew came from the Russian Federation. That same day, July 17, 2014, a conversation between suspect Kharchenko (‘A’) and a certain ‘Ryazan’ (‘B’) was intercepted. Ryazan calls Kharchenko ‘commander’. This conversation was released earlier by the JIT in 2015.

(July 17 2014, 21.32 PM)
Apparently, one of the crew members of the BUK TELAR that shot down MH17 lost contact with the rest of the crew. The JIT would like to know who that crew member is. These telephone conversations do not demonstrate to which unit this crew belongs. The JIT does have evidence from other sources that at that time, Russian soldiers of the 53rd Brigade from Kursk were present near the border with Eastern Ukraine.

The JIT would like to know:

Who was the crew member that got lost shortly after the downing of MH17?
Who has information that may lead the JIT to his identity?
Social media chat
Many soldiers were active on social media. In the JIT-presentation of June 19, 2019 (NL and ENG) a chat from 2015 was shown in which a soldier (‘soldier M’) of the 2nd battalion of the 53rd Brigade takes part. This soldier was part of the convoy that departed on  June 23, 2014 from the base of the 53rd Brigade in Kursk and headed towards Millerovo, in the Russian Federation. This convoy also included the BUK TELAR with the numbers 3 and 2 on the side.

Soldier M is chatting to a certain ‘Anastasia’.

Read full chat

On the basis of this conversation it can be assumed that soldier M was in the second battalion and travelled along with certain ‘cool guys’ and a first lieutenant from the 3rd battalion of the 53rd Brigade. The BUK TELAR that was used to shoot down MH17 originated from the 3rd battalion of the 53rd Brigade. M cannot reveal where the ‘cool guys’ from the third battalion went, because it is a secret. He does however say they went to the West.
The JIT would like to get in touch with the first lieutenant, who now is a captain. His name has been made unrecognisable here, but the JIT has information he belongs to the 53rd Brigade from Kursk. The JIT calls on this first lieutenant or other witnesses to report to the JIT in order to answer a number of questions about his role.

The JIT would like to know:

The JIT would like to get in touch with the first Lieutenant, who now is a captain, mentioned in the chat. The JIT knows he is an officer, belonging to the 53rd Anti Aircraft Missile Brigade from Kursk.
The JIT calls on this first lieutenant or other witnesses to report to the JIT in order to answer a number of questions about his role.
Photographs
Several photos have been posted on social media, showing soldiers of the 53rd brigade, which have been made in the summer of 2014 in a region close to eastern Ukraine. A selection of these photos are published here.   

The JIT has documents regarding the 53rd  Anti Aircraft Missile Brigade, indicating exactly which members of the 53rd Brigade were present in mid-July 2014 in the area near the Ukrainian border. In addition, the JIT has information that the military convoy that went to Millerovo with six TELARS in June 2014 returned by train to the base in Kursk with only five TELARS in September 2014. On May 24, 2018 the JIT showed evidence (ENG or RU)  the BUK TELAR that shot down flight MH17, originated from the 53rd  Brigade. Therefore, members of this Brigade might know the identity of that specific TELAR crew. The JIT would like to know whether any of the persons in the photos were in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 and whether they have any knowledge on the BUK TELAR which downed MH17 and its crew.

The JIT would like to know:

Were any of the persons in the photographs as published on this site in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014?
Do any of the persons in the photographs have information about the use of the BUK TELAR with numbers ‘3’ and the ‘2’ on the side in eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014?
Which soldiers were part of the BUK TELAR crew that shot down flight MH17?
If you know the answers to these questions or if you know people who can provide answers, please contact the JIT. We will handle your information with ultimate care. JIT investigators are available to help you in several languages including Russian and Ukrainian.
Witnesses can contact the JIT to provide information or evidence. For those concerned about safety, refer to Witness Safety & Protection and Safe communication