Girkin insisted on Wednesday he was innocent and said he would not testify in court.
"Neither I nor any other separatist is to blame,"Girkin said.
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O’Brien said"it was hard to look at their faces on the screen",as well as pictures of soldiers from the Russian army’s 53rd anti-aircraft brigade,who were believed to have moved into eastern Ukraine with the Buk missile used to shoot down the plane,and may have been operating it at the time.
"It stood out to us that they named what happened as murder,"O’Brien said."We were most impressed with the clear statements about the lack of co-operation from the Russian Federation. The involvement of the[Russian government] has been firmly established."
Speaking after the press conference AFP assistant commissioner Peter Crozier said the men charged were allegedly"key individuals and highly influential,and they played a major role in that weapon being in that field in eastern Ukraine on that day".
But he refused to say if the JIT knew who had pushed the button to launch the Buk missile,or whether any of the men so far charged had given the actual order to fire.
"I’m not going to say we do[know] or we don’t. That will come out in evidence,it’s part of a court process now,"he said.
If none of those charged turned up in court they could still arrange legal representation in their absence,he said.
And even if they refused to appear or defend themselves,"at least we will be able to try the evidence,the evidence will be put forward and people can see that it’s valid,the investigation had full integrity and the prosecution was fair",Crozier said.
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He said he knew there was"no such thing as closure"for the families of victims but he was"looking to see what ways we can bring forward justice to those people".
He said the investigation had involved the AFP’s biggest overseas deployment in history – bigger than the Bali bombings or Indonesian tsunami – with more than 500 officers involved.
Detective Superintendent David Nelson,commander of the AFP contingent in the Netherlands and Ukraine and a senior investigating officer on the JIT,said they still had five officers in the Netherlands and four in Ukraine continuing the investigation.
They are seeking"key witnesses"from the Russian 53rd brigade who could identify members of the Buk missile crew"and those higher up the chain",he said.
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He said the question of who gave the order to fire on MH17 was"a part of our ongoing investigation".
Dr Martin Jarrett,an Australian international law expert currently a senior lecturer at the University of Mannheim in Germany,said there were two other avenues to hold Russia to account for the downing of MH17 apart from the criminal case.
The Australian government could make a claim under the"Chicago Convention"on civil aviation and take a case to the International Court of Justice at The Hague,he said,though it was doubtful whether Russia would attend to defend itself or agree to any remedy ordered by the court.
Parties to that treaty,including Russia,pledged not to use weapons against civil aircraft in flight.
And individual victims’ families could take a case against Russia to the European Court of Human Rights,claiming Russian had breached a treaty obligation to respect the"right to life",Jarrett said.
"But there is always the practical question of whatever remedy they get,will they be able to enforce it[against Russia],"he said.
"It’s just a question of whether Russia wants to play ball."
A key question in the case would be whether those directly responsible for shooting down the plane were acting on the instructions of,or under the direction and control of the Russian state.