Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Thursday that the recent findings of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on the MH17 flight crash in eastern Ukraine were politically motivated and not supported by evidence
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th June, 2019) Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Thursday that the recent findings of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on the MH17 flight crash in eastern Ukraine were politically motivated and not supported by evidence.
On Wednesday, the JIT, whose conclusions Russia has called groundless, announced the Names of four suspects � three Russian nationals and one Ukrainian national � allegedly involved in delivering a Buk missile system to a launch site in eastern Ukraine, from where it allegedly shot the Malaysian Boeing. The Russian Foreign Ministry reiterated that the accusations against Moscow were unfounded, refuted the JIT investigators' statements on Russia's refusal to cooperate and insisted that the JIT had presented no evidence in the case.
"We are very unhappy because from the very beginning, it became a political issue on how to accuse Russia of the wrongdoing. Even before they examine, they already said Russia. ... We want proof of guilt. But so far, there is no proof, only hearsay," the prime minister said at the press conference, as quoted by local newspaper Malay Mail.
The Malaysian Foreign Ministry published on Twitter a separate statement on JIT presentation, also pointing to the lack of evidence.
"Our approach has always been that conclusions must be based on evidence and not be politically motivated," the statement said.
Flight MH17 crashed with 298 people on board on July 17, 2014, in eastern Ukraine, while en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, leaving no survivors. Kiev and self-proclaimed republics in Ukraine's southeast have blamed each other for the downing of Malaysia Airlines plane.
The Dutch-led JIT concluded that the plane was brought down by the missile, which came from the 53rd Anti-aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, based near Russia's Kursk. The Russian Foreign Ministry refuted the conclusions as groundless and called the investigation biased.
Moscow has repeatedly denied the JIT accusations of having a role in the MH17 crash and said that these claims were unfounded while the investigation itself was biased. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia has not been granted access to the investigation, adding that Moscow would be able to recognize its results only if it is a part of the probe.
The Russian Defense Ministry has said that in 2011, the Russian authorities disposed of all the missiles from the series that included the missile whose engine the JIT demonstrated as an evidence to prove Russia's involvement in the downing of the plane.
