Fragment
Preface
This book is brought to you by popular demand. People from all around the world have asked me for a book in English about the MH17 trial held in The Netherlands from 2020 to 2022. My first two books about the subject were published in
Dutch. The second one was entitled Het MH17 Bedrog (The MH17 Deception). It came out in August 2024 and contains a report and analysis of the trial and its preparations, including the investigations of the Dutch Safety Board and the Joint Investigation Team. The criminal trial in The Netherlands against four individuals, three Russians and one Ukrainian, determined the outcome of the inter-state cases brought before the Interna- tional Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against the Russian Federation. The ICAO and the ECHR did not conduct criminal investigations themselves. They based their 2025 rulings on the criminal evi- dence that was gathered by the Joint Investigation Team to put suspects on trial in The Netherlands.
As far as I know, no other journalist has put so many hours into studying MH17. I attended or watched all 69 court hearings at the District Court of The Hague and all relevant press conferences in The Netherlands and Russia. I interviewed dozens of people, read over a thousand reports, documents and news articles in all languages. Yet my Dutch MH17 books were self-published, without pre-financing, and so is this book. I have been in discussion with a major Dutch publisher who was seriously interested in a book about the MH17 trial. Our contact ended when he noticed that I questioned the official ‘Russia-did-it’ narrative. It is impossible to do this in The Netherlands. It’s a taboo. One is either completely ignored or branded a Kremlin asset. The publisher therefore saw no way to ‘sell’ my book to the Dutch media.
My second MH17 book was quite substantial; it contains 314,000 words. Some have therefore advised me to bring out a shortened version. The result is lying before you. Although much shorter than the Dutch book, this book provides you with all that you need to know about the MH17 trial: an analysis of all evidence that was presented to the District Court of The Hague by the Public Prosecution Service and all counterevidence presented by, among others, the Dutch defence lawyers of Oleg Pulatov, one the four defendants. Having finished reading, you will have a better overview than anyone you know, including the pundits from the papers, radio and tv.
Who downed MH17? The Joint Investigation Team admitted that it failed to identify those who pulled the trigger and gave the shooting order. It also stated that it did not know why the plane was shot down. Nonetheless it accused Russia of having been involved. I have seen no convincing, let alone conclusive evidence for this. Something completely different might have happened. In this book you can find some hints for alter- native scenarios. But I try not to point fingers. I invite you, the reader, to make up your own mind.
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Thuiswinkel Waarborg