Reuters on July 18 led a source from Ukrainian authorities saying it had arrested a truck driver carrying missiles to shoot down Malaysian Airlines airlines in 2014, causing 298 people to die.
The arrest was conducted two years ago and an unnamed offender is currently serving a sentence in Ukraine. However, officials are not clear why the new information has been published so far.
Passenger flight MH17 is on the way from the Dutch capital of Amsterdam to Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur, when it was shot down when flying over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. Most of the victims were Dutch citizens with 196 people.
Relatives of the victims attended the memorial ceremony of the 5-year MH17 plane was shot down
Dutch investigators later criticized Russia for providing ground-to-air missiles to attackers. On the 5th anniversary of the incident, Vitaly Mayakov of the Ukrainian Security Agency (SBU) released the information about the detention.
“We ruled against one of the gunmen who drove the missile to the Donetsk region. We have arrested him and this person is currently serving a sentence here, "Mayakov said.
According to the official, authorities have identified more than 150 people involved in transporting missile launchers to Ukraine and taken away.
Also on the 5th anniversary, relatives of the victims continue to call for the culprits to go to justice.
"We may not have found four suspects if we don’t continue to push," said Nur Diyana Yazeera, whose mother Dora Shahila Kassim died on the flight.
Dutch investigators accused three Russians, Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian citizens Leonid Kharchenko, of being involved in Malaysia Airlines Airlines’ Boeing 777 flight (MH17 flight).
During the press conference on June 19, the Joint Investigation Group (JIT), including the Netherlands, Malaysia, Belgium, Australia and Ukraine, announced that the four suspects were charged with transporting Buk missile systems used to land aircraft. MH17.
The fragment of the MH17 plane was shot down in Ukraine
According to the investigation team, Girkin is a former colonel of the Russian Federal Security Agency (FSB), Dubinskiy working for the Russian Military Intelligence Agency (GRU) while Pulatov is a veteran of the Russian Special Forces, Spetsnaz. -GRU. The suspect Kharchenko is said to be the military commander of the rebels in eastern Ukraine.
An absent trial is expected to take place in the Netherlands on 9.3.2020 and an international warrant has been issued.
