Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine for European Integration Sergiy Petukhov has said Russia will be responsible for the MH17 crash over Donbas.
"The evidence collected and already published by the Joint Investigation Team is enough to assert that Russia's top military and civilian leadership is responsible for this act of terror," he wrote on Facebook.
"The organizers and executors of the terror act, which killed 298 people, will face Dutch justice. Separately, Russia as a state will be held responsible for this international crime," Petukhov added.
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According to the official, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine should ratify the agreement with the Netherlands, which regulates the transfer of criminal proceedings to the Dutch court and international legal assistance in the investigation and litigation.
UNIAN memo. Malaysia Airlines' MH17 Boeing 777 heading from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur was shot down on July 17, 2014, over militant-occupied territory in Donetsk region. All 298 people on board who were citizens of 10 countries were killed in the crash. The majority of the victims, 196, were citizens of the Netherlands.
The Dutch Safety Board October 13, 2015, issued a report on the causes of the accident. It was revealed that the plane had been shot down by a Buk anti-aircraft missile system. The Joint Investigation Team in its report published on September 28, 2016, confirmed that the plane had been downed by a Russian-made Buk brought to Ukraine from Russia.
No suspects have been named, though Dutch Chief Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said his office had identified 100 "persons of interest" in the investigation, including those who organized the arrival of the rocket and oversaw its transportation from Russia to Ukraine and back.
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The Criminal Investigation into the tragedy is carried out by the Joint Investigative Team (JIT), which includes representatives from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine. The countries participating in the investigation of the MH17 crash agreed not to create a separate tribunal and decided that the perpetrators would be brought before the Dutch court.
On July 7, 2017, Ukraine and the Netherlands signed an agreement on the establishment of legal grounds for the consideration of the said case.
On May 25, Australia and the Netherlands formally accused Russia of being responsible for downing a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet in 2014.
