Facts

Information from Russia on Buk, its missile that downed MH17 insufficient, will not satisfy demands of prosecutors – JIT representative

Information presented by the Russian Federation about the Buk system and its missile used to shoot down flight MH17 in Donbas in 2014 is insufficient for the prosecution, chief of the National Investigation Service of the Dutch police and representative of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) Wilbert Paulissen has said.

"We received this information from Russia, about the missile, about documentation for it. We saw the radar information and studied it. We did all this within the framework of our Dutch investigation, we conducted our own investigation. This information we received from Russia was insufficient for making conclusions about where the missile system came from and what kind of missile system it was," he said during a press conference in Utrecht, the Netherlands on Wednesday.

Paulissen said, "The lack of evidence does not prove it does not exist."

"We have information about the launch [of the missile], the results of the launch. Our experts are working with this. We are absolutely depending on our experts. Their conclusions will be in the report that will be provided to the judge during trial," he said.

Dutch Chief Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke, in turn, said investigators did not yet have answers to all questions involving the tragedy.

"We are still waiting for a response about where namely this weapon system, which was captured on video, [originates from], whether it was from Russia and where namely it was deployed on July 17, 2014. We have asked this question for a year and Russia has not responded," he said.

Westerbeke said investigators have information and confirmation that Russia had direct ties and was directly involved in the crime.

"I would like to say that after July 17, 2014, they absolutely could have informed us what had happened. Because the Buk involved came from [Russia's] 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade. They knew about this. They had this information. They did not say even this. I would not call this 'cooperation,'" he said.

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