He recalled that the team was formed by Ukraine (where the plane crashed), Australia and the Netherlands (which had the largest number of passengers on board of the doomed plane). However, another country that has also been involved in the investigation is Belgium which Helmer considers a "peculiar member."
According to Helmer, it is unclear why Belgium is a member of the JIT at all, taking into account the fact that there were less Belgian citizens on board of MH17 than for example those from Indonesia and Great Britain.
"Why does Belgium appear in the JIT as an investigative body when there is no British, no Indonesian, no German involvement?" the expert asked.
"When I tried to find out even the names of the Belgian representatives at the JIT, the Dutch at the JIT refused. And that is in spite of the fact that the Australian officer in charge, the Dutch officer in charge, Ukrainian officer in charge at the JIT — they've all been identified. So you've got a secret country group, the Belgians, with minimal interest, minimal competence in investigation. Why?— I don't know why," Helmer said.
On July 17, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was downed in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk, killing all 298 people on board. Since that day, Kiev and independence supporters in Ukraine's southeast have constantly blamed each other for the tragedy.
Replying to the question of whether the JIT is likely to really find the perpetrators responsible for the tragedy, Helmer said:
"I would guess that it would continue for many years as was the case in the investigation of Pan American plane which was downed and blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland."
"I believe it will be many, many years before it's clear what happened and who was responsible. So I don't expect the JIT to do what they promised which is to identify a couple of individuals and bring them to trial," the expert concluded.
