Moscow: One of the main suspects named in the shooting down of passenger flight MH17 over Ukraine denied Wednesday that pro-Russian separatists were behind the missile attack that left 298 people dead.
“I can only say that rebels did not shoot down the Boeing,” Igor Strelkov, who is also known as Igor Girkin, told Russia’s ‘Interfax’ news agency.
International investigators said Wednesday they were issuing arrest warrants for Girkin and three other suspects over the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane in July, 2014 when it was shot out of the sky by a BUK missile.
The Dutch-led probe said it was going to prosecute Russian nationals Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov as well as Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, adding they would be placed on national and international wanted lists.
Dutch prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said the four men ‘will be held accountable for bringing the deadly weapon, the ‘BUK Telar’ missile, into eastern Ukraine’.
Relatives of the victims earlier said they had been told the trial of the four men would begin in the Netherlands in March 2020. However the suspects are likely to be tried in absentia as Russia does not allow its nationals to be sent abroad for prosecution.
Of the four men, Girkin, who is thought to be living here, is the most high-profile suspect. He was a senior commander in Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine before apparently falling out with the Kremlin.
Girkin told ‘Interfax’ he would not provide testimony in the case. “I don’t even want to comment this. Neither me nor other rebels are involved,” Girkin was quoted as saying.
AFP
