WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd June, 2019) US Department of Justice (DOJ) has declined to comment on whether it has given its satellite images to the investigators of the 2014 crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine, Justice Department Spokesperson Nicole Navas Oxman told Sputnik on Friday.
Wilbert Paulissen, chief constable of the Netherlands National Police, said Wednesday that they don't have satellite data from the United States. Paulissen also said that information such as the data retrieved from satellites is normally published in court and it is up to the judge to decide where anything should be shown outside of court.
"As a matter of policy, the Justice Department does not publicly comment on communications with foreign governments on investigative matters, including confirming or denying the very existence of such communications. What I can tell you is that we are cooperating with authorities in the Netherlands," Oxman stated.
Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolay Vinnichenko told RIA Novosti earlier in the week that Russia wants the Netherlands to explain why the data from Ukrainian radars and US satellites concerning the MH17 crash has not been published.
When asked whether there had been any progress in Russia obtaining data from Ukrainian radars, recordings of Ukrainian military air traffic controllers' conversations, records of Ukraine's ammunition register at the time of the crash, as well as data from US satellites, Vinnichenko said that it was the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that should deal with it.
On July 17, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed near the city of Donetsk. All 298 passengers and crew on board the aircraft died. Kiev accused local militias of downing the aircraft, while they said that had no weapons capable of downing such a plane.
The interim conclusions presented by the JIT, which does not include Russia, suggested that the plane had been downed by a Russian-made Buk missile originating with a military brigade stationed in the Russian city of Kursk. The JIT could not say what court and when would be given the results of the investigation.
According to Vinnichenko, Russia sent the JIT the data showing that the missile that hit the Boeing was a Ukrainian one, but this information was not taken into account.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that the JIT allegations of Russia's links to the crash were groundless and regrettable, adding that the investigation was biased and one-sided. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed out that Russia was not allowed to participate in the investigation of the crash, and Moscow can only recognize the results of the probe if it participates in it fully.
The Russian Defense Ministry has said that all missiles like the one, whose engine the Dutch investigative commission showed, were discarded after 2011.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly stressed that Russia strongly refutes accusations of having links to the crash of MH17 Boeing.
