MH17 trial: Court rejects Pulatov lawyers' request on secret witness

"The lawyers' request to provide all available information and documents on witness S45 was rejected," presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis said during today’s hearing, an Ukrinform correspondent in The Hague reports.

During the court hearing on December 8, the lawyers of Russian citizen Oleg Pulatov stated that there were no documents about witness S45 in the case files and that prosecutors should provide all the information. Pulatov's lawyer Sabine ten Doesschate demanded that the court order the prosecutor's office to attach documents on S45 to the case files. The prosecution asked the court not to disclose information about this witness.

A court hearing in the MH17 trial began today at 10:00, the Netherlands local time. The prosecutor's office began presenting the indictment. According to the preliminary schedule, the court hearings are to take place on December 20, 21, and 22.

As reported, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over occupied area of Donetsk region on July 17, 2014. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. All of them died. The international Joint Investigation Team reported that the plane had been shot down from a Buk missile system that belonged to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Kursk.

On June 19, 2019, the JIT named four suspects believed to be involved in the transportation and combat use of the Buk missile system, from which MH17 flight had been downed. Three of them are Russians: Igor Girkin (Strelkov), former colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence service and former so-called defense minister of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic"; Sergey Dubinskiy, general (at the time of downing – colonel) of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and head of the so-called "Main Intelligence Directorate of the Donetsk People’s Republic"; Oleg Pulatov, lieutenant colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. The fourth suspect is Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian civilian, who fought on the side of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic.

In March 2020, the District Court of The Hague began the consideration of the case over the downing of Flight MH17.

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