Russia is refusing to allow commander to testify at MH17 trial

Russia has blocked a witness from giving evidence over the shooting down of flight MH17 on the grounds he could reveal state secrets.

The Kremlin has blocked a key military witness from giving evidence in the trial over the 2014 shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, bizarrely on the grounds he could reveal state secrets.

The refusal will come as a further blow to the families of 38 Australian citizens and residents, who were among 298 passengers and crew killed when their flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was downed over East Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

The District Court of The Hague last month formally requested Colonel Sergei Muchkaev, the commander of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade to give evidence into the trial of four men accused of downing the aircraft.

Members of the Joint Investigation Team hold a press conference on June 19, 2019 where four suspects were named and the BUK missile launcher identified. Picture: AFP

The Australian-Dutch led investigations team concluded in 2018 the airline was shot down by a Buk missile belonging to the Brigade and driven into Ukraine from Kursk in western Russia.

It is suspected the Brigade believed it was a Ukraine air force aircraft when they fired.

But Russia has refused to allow the commander to give evidence, writing to the court to declare it “impossible” as it could harm the interests of the State.

Presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis opens the court hearing into MH17. Picture: AFP

Presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis said the Russia Federation had made clear their commander could be asked about military information that could have led to the disclosure of state secrets which could harm the nation.

He said the Russia Federation noted that under the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, the State has the right to refuse to provide evidence.

Passport of one of the pilots Captain Choo Jin Leong Eugene, found in a field by News Corp Australia in 2014. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

Russia said it was “unable to co-operate” on the basis of military confidentiality that could “undermine the state secrets of the Russian Federation and, consequently, the essential interests of the Russian Federation”.

Previous attempts to have the witness give evidence had been met with a mute response.

There has already been evidence presented to court of the Buk missile firing launcher having been driven across the border from Russia on the orders of the Kremlin and Russian Ministry of Defence, a claim the Kremlin has strenuously denied.

Paul Guard with his wife Jessie Wells during a National Memorial Service for the first anniversary of MH17. Guard’s parents Jill and Roger were on the flight. Picture: News Corp Australia

Three Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian dissident Leonid Kharchenko have been charged with the aircraft’s downing and are being tried in absentia. The trial, which has taken evidence from the families of many of the victims including from Australia via video link, is expected to end late 2022.

There are strong suspicions tens of thousands of Russian troops currently massing on the eastern Ukraine border are set to invade the resource rich territory any day now and end the border war that since 2014 has led to more than 14,000 mostly civilian deaths.

Originally published as Russia is refusing to allow commander to testify at MH17 trial