ON "60 MINUTES": DUTCH PROSECUTOR WHO INDICTED RUSSIANS FOR THE MISSILE ATTACK ON MALAYSIA FLIGHT 17 THAT KILLED 298 PEOPLE SAYS THAT RUSSIA HASN'T HELPED HIS INVESTIGATION

"60 Minutes" Finds One of the Indicted Russians in Moscow

It was the Netherlands version of 9/11. On July 17, 2014, 298 people died when their aircraft was shot out of the sky over eastern Ukraine. 193 of those on board were Dutch, many of them headed for vacation on Malaysian Airlines flight 17 as it headed from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Two weeks from now, in a Dutch courtroom, four men will go on trial for 298 counts of murder. Dutch prosecutors will present a case saying that MH17 was brought down by a Russian anti-aircraft missile fired by a Russian crew supporting rebels in eastern Ukraine. The chief prosecutor in the case, Fred Westerbeke, tells Scott Pelley that despite all the evidence pointing to the Russian military, Russia has not been helpful and has never admitted fault in the disaster. Pelley's report on the incident will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, Feb. 23 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Russia won't turn over the defendants, and 60 MINUTES found one of them living openly in Moscow, under Russian government protection, denying any role in the shoot-down.

60 MINUTES shows what's left of MH17, a Boeing 777 that was partially reconstructed in a hangar in the Netherlands from over 8,000 pieces of wreckage. Shrapnel unique to the Russian missile was found in the bodies of the pilots and throughout the cockpit. Prosecutors will present eyewitnesses, phone intercepts and video evidence culled from the internet to place the Russian mobile missile launcher in Ukraine and tie it to the attack.

Westerbeke says Russia has not helped the case. "[Russia] has not been helpful at all, because what they should have done is give us all the information and all the proof we needed in this difficult investigation... they should have told us that the second day after it happened," he tells Pelley. "They should have told us, 'We made a mistake.'"

The highest-ranking Russian indicted in the attack is Igor Girkin. He is a retired colonel in military intelligence who was in charge of a pro-Russia militia in Ukraine, where separatists are fighting the Ukrainian government to become part of Russia. 60 MINUTES found Girkin as he was about to enter a government building in Moscow. "Someone has to be the scapegoat. So they picked me and others who couldn't even theoretically shoot down this plane," Girkin said. "The militia did not bring down the Boeing plane. I have no further comment."

Girkin and the others, Sergey Dubinsky, head of intelligence for the pro-Russia militia, Oleg Pulatov and Leonid Kharchenko, who were involved in delivering the missile, will not be extradited by Russia. They will be tried in absentia. This troubles relatives of the victims. Pelley spoke to some of them, including Piet Ploeg, whose brother, sister-in-law and nephew were killed by the missile.

"It's 9/11 for the Netherlands. All people in the Netherlands were very, very, very shocked," Ploeg said. Despite the defendants' absence, he will nonetheless deliver a message to them when he speaks at the trial. "I want them to know what they have done... not only to the victims but also the next of kin. They have to feel it."

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