The first two days in the trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian over the downing of Malaysian airliner MH17 over Ukraine on 17 July 2014 have demonstrated just how incriminating the proceedings will be for Russia. The latter’s track record of state-organized killings in Qatar; the UK; Germany; Turkey and Bulgaria was cited as one of the reasons why certain witnesses’ identities must be kept secret, with the need for such protection having been recognized by the examining magistrate. Such witnesses include the person identified as M58 who “has stated that Russian military personnel, whom the DPR fighters said were from the FSB, were with the Buk TELAR at the launch site”. Witness S24 was said to have expressed fear of reprisals by the Russian Federation, of being killed “so as to prevent the truth from coming out”.
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Halya Coynash: MH17 witness reports ‘FSB’ was at missile launch site
In this file photo taken on Nov. 11, 2014 journalists look at parts of the Malaysia Airlines plane Flight MH17 as Dutch investigators (unseen) arrive at the crash site near the Hrabove village in eastern Ukraine, hoping to recover debris from the Malaysia Airlines plane which crashed in July, killing 298 people, in remote separatist-held territory east of Donetsk.
