MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. Resident of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Vladimir Tsemakh, a suspect in the probe into the 2014 MH17 flight disaster over the Donetsk Region, has filed a complaint with the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Ukraine and the Netherlands, Defense Attorney Anatoly Kucherena told TASS on Wednesday.

"I have filed the complaint with the ECHR in the interests of Tsemakh. At the moment, I have no further information, we are waiting to see how things will be unfolding," Kucherena said. According to the attorney, Tsemakh draws attention in his complaint to the circumstances of his abduction, detention in a remand prison in Kiev and dire conditions in prison. "This is a flagrant violation of human rights," Kucherena stressed. Earlier, he said his defendant was ready to testify to the Dutch and Ukrainian law enforcers.

Tsemakh’s abduction

In June 2019, Ukrainian special services abducted Vladimir Tsemakh, taking him to Kiev. The DPR demanded that its citizen be returned and called on international human rights organizations to intervene. According to DPR head Denis Pushilin, Ukraine kidnapped Tsemakh with the intention of fabricating the circumstances of the 2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash. He was released on September 7 in a prisoner swap.

Tsemakh earlier told Rossiya 24 TV that he was exploring the possibility of applying to international courts over the violation of his rights. He also spoke about the dire conditions in the Ukrainian prison. According to the DPR citizen, doctors were not allowed to visit him, and he was interrogated without any lawyers.

What’s more, along with Ukrainian Security Service officers, Dutch and Australian police took part in the interrogations. They tried to exert psychological pressure on him in order to obtain "the evidence they needed" of the DPR militia’s and Russia’s ‘involvement’ in the crash of the Malaysian passenger plane in the skies over Donbass in 2014.

In June, the Netherlands changed the status of Vladimir Tsemakh, who had been previously considered a "person of interest" to a suspect in the investigation into the Malaysian Boeing 777 crash in Ukraine.

A passenger liner Boeing-777 of the Malaysia Airlines (flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur) was shot down over the Donetsk Region of Ukraine on July 17, 2014. The disaster claimed the lives of 298 passengers and crew — citizens of ten countries. Although hostilities were underway on the ground at that time, Kiev failed to close the airspace over the area to international passenger flights. A Joint Investigation Team was created by Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ukraine. Malaysia, whose air carrier owned the ill-fortunate plane, was invited to join in only four months later. All of Russia’s offers of help with the investigation were rejected.

At the moment Tsemakh is in the DPR.