DISINFO: Double standards in the MH17 and the Khashoggi probe: where are the sanctions against the Saudi regime?
SUMMARY
The JIT report is flawed from anti-Russia prejudice and unsubstantiated “evidence”. It is based on hearsay and innuendo. This is a travesty of legal standards and criminal investigation. None of the Dutch-led probe has conformed to the slightest standards of criminal investigation and due process. Yet the JIT’s unsubstantiated allegations against Russia and its collection of reports have lent political impetus for the US and its European allies to impose economic sanctions against Russia which have cost the country billions of dollars in disrupted trade. By contrast, the UN report this week confirms serious allegations against the Saudi rulers for their role in the barbaric murder of a journalist. Jamal Khashoggi was kidnapped inside a consular premises, drugged, murdered and his remains dismembered, never to be found. As the UN special rapporteur asked this week: where are the Western sanctions against the Saudi regime?
RESPONSE
An attempt to apply "whataboutism" on the MH17 case, suggesting "double standards" on the two entirely unrelated cases.
The Joint Investigation Team has concluded that flight MH17 was shot down on 17 July 2014 by a missile of the 9M38 series, launched by a BUK-TELAR, from farmland in the vicinity of Pervomaiskiy. At that time, the area was controlled by pro-Russian fighters. The BUK-TELAR was brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation and subsequently, after having shot down flight MH17, was taken back to the Russian Federation.
On 24 May 2018, the JIT stated that the BUK-TELAR that was used to down MH17 originated from the 53rd Anti Aircraft Missile brigade, a unit of the Russian army from Kursk in the Russian Federation. The JIT reached this conclusion after extensive comparative research. An animation of this comparative research is available here.
The European Union and NATO have called on the Russian Federation to accept its responsibility and to fully cooperate with all efforts to establish accountability. On the basis of the JIT’s conclusions, the Netherlands and Australia said that they are convinced that Russia is responsible for the deployment of the Buk installation that was used to down MH17.
More cases on MH17 flight here.