A BRITISH student is a major player in Ukraine’s rebel group that is accused of shooting down the Malaysian jet MH17, killing 298 innocents, the Daily Mirror reported Sunday.

    Beness Aijo, 29, has been under house arrest in Latvia, where security sources say he is “a dangerous and influential individual,” the report said.

    Aijo is a “major player” in the group and has close ties with its commander Igor Girkin, who is widely blamed for the atrocity that killed 298 passengers and crew, it said.

    Aijo — who has numerous convictions for violent political extremism — studied microbiology at London’s prestigious Birkbeck College and worked on the reconstruction of Heathrow Terminal 2.

    He left the United Kingdom in March after six years in the country to join the pro-Putin paramilitary forces that raided Crimea, the report said.

    In May, he was arrested and deported back to Britain, but he slipped out of the country again, heading for Ukraine to join separatist fighters.(SD-Agencies)