MH17 investigators suspend probe without further prosecutions
The Hague: The international team probing the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine have suspended a long-running investigation into the act, conceding there is not currently sufficient evidence to press for further prosecutions.
The joint taskforce established to assemble evidence for criminal prosecutions after the plane’s destruction – from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Ukraine and Malaysia – made the announcement in the Netherlands on Wednesday 1pm local time.
The wreckage of the MH17 flight, which was shot down in Ukraine in 2014.Credit:Getty Images
The Boeing 777 commercial jet was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing 15 crew members and 283 passengers from 17 nations, including 38 Australians.
“At the present time the findings are insufficient for the crucial prosecution of new suspects,” Digna van Boetzelaer, deputy chief prosecutor and leader of the MH17 team, told journalists.
“We will be making the findings of the investigation public. That is the purpose of the presentation for the next of kin. This press conference and report will be published today.”
In November, a Dutch court convicted two former Russian intelligence agents and a Ukrainian separatist leader of murder for helping to arrange the missile system that was used to shoot the plane down.
The men were tried in absentia – a criminal proceeding when the defendant is not present in the court – since they are still at large. They are all believed to be in Russia or Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine and are unlikely to face jail unless they travel abroad.
They were all senior commanders in the separatist movement, the Donetsk People’s Republic, just months after Russia had annexed Crimea and began backing the breakaway fighters in the Donbas region.
Russia has denied any responsibility for MH17’s destruction. MH17 was shot down as it flew over eastern Ukraine from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, killing all aboard.
At the time the plane was shot down, Ukrainian forces were fighting with pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine’ Donetsk province. While Russia had annexed Crimea in March 2014, it denied military involvement in fighting in Donetsk at that time.
Relatives of those killed in the attack were informed of the new details in a private meeting ahead of the press conference, held at Eurojust, the European agency for judicial cooperation in criminal matters, in The Hague.
Shortly after last November’s court ruling, the police and Public Prosecution Service announced that they would soon release more information about the follow-up investigation.
“Who pressed the button? Who is even higher up the ladder? The investigation has not stopped,” Andy Kraag, head of the National Criminal Investigation Service, said at the time.
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