Lawyer Of MH17 Victims' Relatives Says Invited German Detective Resch To Testify At ECHR

Lawyer of MH17 Victims' Relatives Says Invited German Detective Resch to Testify at ECHR

German lawyer Elmar Giemulla, who defends interests of four German nationals killed in the MH17 plane crash in Donbas, has confirmed to Sputnik that he invites private detective Josef Resch to testify as a witness in the case in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)

BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2019) German lawyer Elmar Giemulla, who defends interests of four German nationals killed in the MH17 plane crash in Donbas, has confirmed to Sputnik that he invites private detective Josef Resch to testify as a witness in the case in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Resch, a German detective who has carried out his own investigation into the 2014 Malaysian Airlines MH17 crash, earlier told Sputnik that he knew the Names of those responsible for the tragedy and possessed other data, which he says the Dutch-led international investigation keeps ignoring.

"It is true [that Resch has been invited to the hearing as a witness]. The court wrote me that the case had not yet advanced so far as to think about witnesses since it is still dealing with formal issues [to find out] whether it is possible to start such a hearing," Giemulla said.

The lawyer explained that the ECHR was currently looking whether it could start considering the case that had not previously been heard in a German national court. According to the lawyer, the plaintiffs do not fall under the jurisdiction of a Ukrainian court, while the case cannot be considered in Germany either, therefore it is possible that the ECHR will finally hear the case as early as this year.

He added that if a positive decision on the issue was made, the hearing could happen "for example, in fall."

Giemulla has already invited a number of other witnesses to the future hearings, in particular, Oleksandr Dotsenko, the acting chief of the Air Traffic Service of Ukraine, and a representative of the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, commonly known as Eurocontrol. The lawyer noted that he had already informed the court about those invited to the trial.

Asked what kind of testimony Resch could provide to the court, Giemulla pointed out that he was unaware of the details, noting, however, that Resch did have "information that the Air Traffic Service of Ukraine knew exactly about the issues" related to the MH17 crash.

In an open letter in July, Resch offered new information about the crash to the Dutch prosecution and the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT), but his proposal had been rejected because he asked to make the materials public. The detective specified that he insisted that the data be publicly revealed over fears for his life in light of repeated threats he had received in connection with his investigation.

The MH17 flight with 298 people on board crashed on July 17, 2014, in eastern Ukraine, while en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, leaving no survivors. Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics in Ukraine's southeast have blamed each other for the downing of the Malaysia Airlines' plane.

The 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.