KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 (Bernama) – Ukraine welcomes the start of the criminal trial over downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 which is scheduled on Monday (March 9) at the District Court of The Hague, says Ukrainian Ambassador to Malaysia Olexander Nechytaylo.
He said the trial serves as an important milestone towards establishing justice for the MH17 victims and their next-of-kin, and holding those responsible to account.
“We have full confidence in the independence and professionalism of the legal procedures in the Dutch court.
“The primary jurisdiction to investigate and to try the perpetrators belongs to Ukraine. However, in order to ensure the most impartial and transparent trial, the right to prosecute under the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) decision was vested on the Netherlands,” Nechytaylo said in a statement to Bernama.
The first hearing of the MH17 criminal trial is scheduled to take place from March 9-13, followed by March 23-27, June 8-July 3, Aug 31-Nov 13 and Feb 1-March 26, 2021.
On July 17, 2014, the aircraft, with 298 onboard from Amsterdam en route to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over Ukraine.
Pursuant to that, a JIT was formed – comprising investigators and prosecutors from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, Netherlands and Ukraine.
On July 2015, Russia vetoed a Malaysian-sponsored United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution calling for the creation of a special international tribunal for MH17.
On October 2015, the Dutch Safety Board published a technical investigation report under the Chicago Convention, which concluded that the MH17 flight was shot down from separatists-controlled area in Ukraine by a BUK missile launcher.
On July 2017, Ukraine and the Netherlands enter into an agreement to prosecute the individuals involved in the downing of MH17 flight in the Netherlands.
On June 2019, the JIT announced that four individuals – three Russians and one Ukrainian – would be charged with the downing of MH17, and were subsequently charged with criminal offences under the criminal and criminal procedural laws of the Netherlands.
Nechytaylo also said that in Jan 2017, Ukraine had initiated proceedings in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the Russian Federation with regards to the claim made by Ukraine on violations by Russia of its obligations under the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, one of the episodes of which is the downing of MH17.
On Nov 8 2019, the ICJ confirmed its jurisdiction in the case.
-- BERNAMA
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