Josef Resch, a German private detective, who has handled the investigation into the МН17 passenger jet crash since 2014, said on the previous day, that he had attempted to share with the Netherlands’ authorities new files on the Malaysia Airlines’ plane crash unaccounted in the latest statements of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) made this June, but was turned down.
Resch insisted that those files should be passed publicly since he was menaced, for which reason he was fearing for his life. That condition did not work for the prosecutor’s office of the Netherlands. The detective eventually published an open letter to the JIT and the Netherlands’ prosecution office on the website of his investigative agency Wifka. The letter claims that the investigation does not hold certain important information that Resch managed to obtain. For example, the detective is ready to unveil to the JIT the name of the informant, the name of the ‘organization’ the informant works for, the list of supposedly destroyed classified documents of high-ranking military and political figures, as well as “written notes of intelligence services about the incident.”
The JIT has not yet responded to the letter of the German detective, though he received a reply from the Netherlands’ prosecution office signed by Prosecutor Ann van Doren. The prosecution office “took note” of the detective’s suggestion. It stated that the conditions set forth by Resch were “very unusual, and they might damage the investigation.” To put it baldly, that means the prosecutor’s office of the Netherlands simply turned Resch away.
To recap, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, a Boeing-777 plane travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17, 2014, over outskirts of Donetsk, killing all 298 people onboard. Kiev placed the guilt for the tragedy on Donbass combatants, which was also supported by many western states, particularly the US, the Netherlands and Australia.
It should be pointed out here that the JIT led by the Netherlands’ prosecution office without Russia’s participation has been conducting probe into circumstances of the MH17 jet crash for five years already. It presented provisional results this June, claiming that the Boeing was downed by the BUK surface-to-air missile, which was part of the Russian 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile brigade near Kursk. In this regard, Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Vinnichenko said that Moscow had passed to the Netherlands all files testifying that the BUK missile system that hit the Boeing, belonged to Ukraine. However, the JIT investigators flatly ignored that information.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry slams investigation as biased and one-sided, while the accusations of the country’s complicity in the MH17 crash as “unsubstantiated and causing regret.” Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin has claimed that Russia is not allowed to take part in the probe into the plane crash near Donetsk, though Moscow can only recognize the results of investigation in case of its full participation.
That said, having the biggest death toll in the crash, Malaysia has also expressed incredulity to the preliminary results of international investigation. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has repeatedly said that the accusations of the MH17 plane crash against Russia are ungrounded and Kuala Lumpur cannot accept them. Mohamad reiterated that in an interview given to the authors of the documentary film by an independent Dutch journalist Max van der Werff about the circumstances of the MH17 jet crash recently released on YouTube.
All the evidence suggests that revealing the real reasons of the Malaysian jet’s crush is not what is of interest to the Joint Investigation Team. The JIT’s refusal to consider the data collected by the German detective Josef Resch is a clear proof of that. Moreover, two weeks ago an array of western politicians and diplomats used the fifth anniversary of the MH17 flight tragedy as a pretext for resuming attacks on Russia. Despite the absurdity of those statements, their only target was to reinforce in people’s minds the idea that it is Moscow, which is to blame for the crash contrary to all reason or common sense.
Chances still exist though to establish the truth. At least, the film by the Dutch Max van der Werff and the investigation of the German Josef Resch could be helpful. Let us not forget about Moscow’s strive to unravel the truth in the case. For example, Russia supported the UN Security Council’s Resolution 2166 adopted on July 21, 2014, since it has always been willing and will be willing in future to contribute to efficient international efforts on revealing all circumstances of the MH17 jet crash.
The only fact of the matter is that the JIT members out of principle reject taking into consideration any facts that undermine the strategy determined from the very beginning – to pin the blame for the tragedy near Donetsk on Russia.
The related investigation is still under way. The Joint Investigation Team states that a court hearing on the MH17 crash in The Hague will start on March 9, 2020. Whether the investigation will get to the bottom of the tragedy in Ukraine’s east by that time is hardly a rhetoric and highly doubtful question, particularly considering the JIT’s biased approach.
