REUTERS
The participants in the investigation into the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in July in Ukraine’s Donbas region have agreed to extend the probe by nine months, according to the Ministry of Justice of Australia.
Australian Justice Minister Michael Keenan said the investigation would last until August 2015, BBC Ukraine reported.
"Australian experts intend to return to the scene of the aircraft crash as soon as it is safe there," Keenan said.
On November 12, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott during the APEC summit in China asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to apologize for the downing of MH17 over the Donbas, and to pay the appropriate compensation to the families of the 298 passengers killed on Flight MH17. In response, the Russian embassy in Canberra called on the Australian Prime Minister to provide evidence that the plane was shot down by pro-Russian terrorists with a Russian missile.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 in the Donetsk region. There is mounting evidence the plane was shot down by a powerful Buk-M anti-aircraft missile. All 298 people on board were killed. Most of the passengers, 194, were Dutch citizens, while 43 people, including all of the aircraft’s crew, were citizens of Malaysia.
The plane crashed near Shakhtarsk in the Donetsk region in an area controlled by Russian-backed insurgents.
The bodies of the crash victims were transferred to the Netherlands for forensic medical examination and identification.
On July 24, Ukraine delegated the investigation of the aircraft crash to the Netherlands.
VIDEO: MH17 probe to be prolonged for another nine months