28.05.2020, Moscow.
The Russian side hopes that the Hague court will commission additional expert evaluations for the investigation of the MH17 crash over Ukraine in 2014, the Director of the First European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Aleksey Paramonov said on May 28 in an interview to RIA Novosti.
According to Paramonov, the investigation is incomplete, and the international investigation team submitted the materials to the court too soon. The first procedural session took place on March 9. Russia has multiple complaints regarding the work of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT). Paramonov believes that it is “politically motivated, biased, and lopsided.”
“We hope that the judges will pay attention to the drawbacks in the investigator’s work, and that they will carefully double-check the collected evidence as well as commission further expert evaluations,” Paramonov said.
According to Paramonov, the investigation team failed to carry out an actual investigation of Ukraine’s role in the MH17 crash and the fact that the Ukrainian authorities did not close the airspace for civilian flights over the armed conflict area. The Russian Federation also hopes that the trilateral consultations with Australia and the Netherlands on this issue will continue.
In February, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Netherlands served charges on four Russian nationals within the MH17 investigation. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the charges were unsubstantiated, and the Netherlands brought pressure on the court in The Hague immediately before the MH17 hearings.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
