‘MH17 suspects’ to be prosecuted in Netherlands

Bloomberg

The five countries working together in the investigation of the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014 have picked the Netherlands as the country where suspects will be prosecuted.
The choice for the Dutch legal system is an “important step” in the prosecution process as Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine are continuing their investigation, the Dutch government said in a statement on Wednesday. The probe into who can be held responsible is “extensive,” it said. No suspect has been identified so far.
The decision comes as the third anniversary approaches of the July 2014 catastrophe over eastern Ukraine, in which 298 people died. Dutch investigators concluded in September last year that the Boeing jet en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was brought down by a BUK missile system fired from rebel-held territory in Ukraine and shuttled back and forth from Russia. At the time, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said this outcome was “an important step” toward finding and bringing those who are responsible to justice. Russia rejected those findings and Defense Ministry officials in Moscow argued that their own investigation showed the missile was launched from Ukrainian-controlled territory.
“While we cannot take away the grief of those who lost their loved ones because of this atrocious act, we are committed to holding the perpetrators to account and achieving justice for all the victims,” Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said in a joint statement.
A Dutch-led probe also concluded in October 2015 that a BUK missile caused the disaster. Dutch Safety Board Chairman Tjibbe Joustra said then that the missile had been fired from a zone that appeared to have been under the control of pro-Russian rebels, though the frontline was changing regularly.

Rekindle Tensions
Russia, which has denied any of its forces are involved in the fighting in Ukraine, disputed the findings and blamed Ukrainian authorities for not closing airspace over the conflict zone. The US and other Western powers have said that all evidence points to separatists having downed MH17, while Ukraine called the disaster a “planned terrorist act.”
The latest announcement may rekindle tensions between the West and Russia. The US and the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia over the 2014 annexation of Crimea and its support for the separatists in eastern Ukraine, where fighting continues to flare as a 2015 peace accord has stalled.