WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th July, 2019) A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spokesperson told Sputnik the agency does not have a comment regarding claims the United States asked Malaysian authorities to hand over the MH17 black box.
Malaysian National Security Council Chief Col. Mohamad Sakri said the FBI asked him for the MH17 black box but he denied their request.
"We do not have a comment," the spokesperson said on Friday.
On July 17, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine's easternmost region of Donbas. All 298 people on board, most of whom were Dutch and Malaysian, died. The Ukrainian government accused local militias of downing the aircraft, while the militias said they had no weapons capable of downing such an airplane.
Almost at once, the United States and its European allies claimed without presenting any evidence that Russia was responsible for the tragedy. These allegations were used by Washington and Brussels as a pretext to introduce sanctions against Moscow. Russia repeatedly denied the accusations.
The interim conclusions presented by the JIT suggested that the airplane was downed by a Russian-made Buk missile originating with a military brigade stationed in the Russian city of Kursk.
The Russian Defense Ministry has said all such missiles were decommissioned in 2011. According to Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolay Vinnichenko, Russia sent the JIT data showing that the missile that hit the Malaysia Airlines Boeing was a Ukrainian one, but this information was not taken into account.
In June, the JIT said it had decided to bring charges against four suspects - three Russians and one Ukrainian - who were allegedly linked to the crash.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has said the JIT allegations of Russia's links to the crash are groundless and regrettable, adding that the investigation is biased and one-sided. Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out that Moscow was not allowed to participate in the investigation and would only recognize the results of the probe if given full access to it.
