MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has declined to comment on the Netherlands' accusation that Russia ignored its request that Volodymyr Tsemakh, a militiaman once fighting for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), be handed over for questioning as a suspect in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) in Donbas in 2014.
"This matter has no relation to the Kremlin, and therefore I can't say anything here," Peskov told journalists on Tuesday.
Dutch prosecutors said earlier that Russia violated the European Convention on Extradition by refusing to extradite Tsemakh for questioning as a suspect in the MH17 crash. The Netherlands has not yet decided whether Tsemakh would be prosecuted, as this decision requires that more evidence be collected.
Tsemakh was questioned while in custody in Ukraine, which later handed him over to Russia, ignoring the Netherlands' request that it not do so.
The Netherlands officially asked Russia for Tsemakh's extradition, and because he is not a Russian citizen but a citizen of Ukraine, there were no legal obstacles to his extradition.
The Dutch prosecutors were notified by Russian authorities on November 19 that the extradition request for Tsemakh could not be granted, as Russia had no information on his whereabouts.
Flight MH17 traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was downed over the Donetsk region on July 17, 2014. All 298 people on board died.
The crash is being investigated by the Joint Investigation Team comprised of representatives of Ukrainian, Dutch, Belgian, Australian, and Malaysian law enforcement agencies.
The JIT said in releasing conclusions about the crash in September 2016 that the aircraft had been downed by a missile launched with a Buk air defense system. The JIT also said a year ago that the Buk system in question belonged to the 53rd Air Defense Missile Brigade stationed in Kursk, Russia.
On May 19, 2019, the JIT named four people it viewed as suspects in the downing of the MH17. They are Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov), Sergey Dubinskiy, and Oleg Pulatov (all of them Russian citizens), along with Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko. The four have been declared internationally wanted. The JIT said they would be prosecuted under Article 168 and Article 289 of the Dutch Criminal Code. Court proceedings in relation to the four suspects are set to begin at the District Court in The Hague on March 9, 2020.