Russia also targeted investigators in several countries affected by the crash, a prosecutor said on the second day of a hearing at a maximum security court near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
“British and Dutch authorities have determined that Russian GRU agents were involved in an try and hack into the systems of Malaysian investigative authorities,” Berger said, referring to Russia’s military spy agency.
He added that there have been also attempts to hack into the Dutch Security Council, which was investigating the MH17 disaster.
“Taken as an entire, this information casts a dark shadow over these proceedings,” he said.
The trial began within the absence of 4 suspects – Russian residents Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko.
International investigators say the Boeing 777 jet was hit by a Russian BUK surface-to-air missile fired from territory held by pro-Moscow rebels fighting Kiev.
Relatives of the victims have repeatedly called for a trial to research Russia’s role within the disaster, which investigators say was attributable to a Russian-made missile fired from separatist territory.
When it became clear that it was not a military aircraft but civilian flight MH17, a disinformation campaign immediately began
“The court made it clear that the Russian government is conducting a disinformation campaign,” said Anton Kotte, a board member of the inspiration for the victims of MH17, who lost his son, daughter-in-law and grandson.
“We will have to prepare for much greater distortions of the truth as this case unfolds.”
Prosecutors described concerns that Russia would attempt to track down potential trial witnesses, a few of whom would supply anonymous testimony.
“The use of Russian security services to determine the identity of witnesses in this investigation is a very real scenario. These agencies have the ability to intercept communications and monitor people’s movements,” Berger added. “Several witnesses involved in this investigation say they fear for their lives if their identities were revealed.”
Prosecutors added that Russian security services have already been “accused of multiple murders committed in various European countries.”
Special protection was given to at least one witness who agreed to disclose his name later within the proceedings, but for now he stays anonymous for security reasons, prosecutors said.
Called only M58 at this stage, the witness was a Russian volunteer assigned to a separatist unit that was near the BUK when it was launched on the day MH17 was shot down.
A witness testified that Russian military personnel – in response to the separatists, from the Russian security agency FSB – were with the missile on the launch site, he added.
“When it became clear in the next hours that this was not a military aircraft but civilian flight MH17, a disinformation campaign immediately began,” said prosecutor Dedy Woei-a-Tsoi.
Another witness, identified only as S24, “expressed fear of retaliation from the Russian Federation,” while a 3rd, often called V9, asked to stay anonymous because “I may very well be taken away by the Russian secret services,” the prosecutor’s office added.
