One year of MH17 Malaysian Airplane crash, Russia rejects call for International criminal tribunal for the case
It is now one year since the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine. The expectations for justice continue to linger and heightening by the day with Russia rejecting talk of creating an international criminal tribunal for the case.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte by phone Thursday that Dutch efforts to create a tribunal to try the case were premature and counterproductive, since an investigation hasn't ended, the Kremlin said.
MH17, heading from Amsterdam to Malaysia, was shot down on July 17, 2014, over Ukrainian territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists, killing all 298 people on board.
Putin's call came a day after a source told CNN that the Dutch transportation safety board, in a draft report yet to be released, says evidence indicates that pro-Russian rebels shot down MH17 with a Russian-made surface-to-air missile.
Disputes over who is responsible for the disaster have helped to taint relations between Moscow and the West.
On Tuesday, the Netherlands and four other nations leading the MH17 investigation called on the U.N. Security Council to create a tribunal that would try whomever is charged, saying in a joint statement that it would be "the best means of ensuring justice for the victims and their loved ones."
"Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine call upon members of the Security Council to support this proposal to ensure that those responsible are held to account and to deter those who would threaten civil aviation," the statement read.
Dutch prosecutor: Evidence points to Russian-made missile
On Thursday, the prosecutor leading the Netherlands' criminal MH17 investigation told CNN that evidence gathered so far indicates the plane was hit by a Buk, a surface-to-air missile manufactured in Russia.
Even before the MH17 disaster, Western nations accused Russia of supplying the rebels in Ukraine. The United States and the European Union imposed sanctions against Russia last year to punish it for this and its annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
The prosecutor, Fred Westerbeke, did not comment on who might have fired the missile. Who fired the missile is crucial to this case.
"Most of the information we have points to the use of a Buk rocket being fired from the eastern part of Ukraine," he said.
Westerbeke's criminal investigation is separate from that of the Dutch safety board. The criminal probe is expected to produce a report by the end of the year, while the safety board's report is due in October.
He said investigators are "not yet in the stage where we have suspects, just persons of interest who could have taken part in one of the scenarios."
He said he believes a prosecution will happen.
"Will the suspect be arrested and handed over for prosecution? That is more difficult to answer," he said.
It's been nearly one year since 298 people were killed after a commercial passenger plane broke up over the Ukraine.
U.S. officials concluded Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was struck by a missile and shot out of the sky. A final report from investigators has yet to be released but according to CNN, new details have emerger from the draft investigative report for the July 17, 2014 incident.
Dutch accident investigators say that evidence points to pro-Russian rebels as being responsible for shooting down MH-17, according to a source who has seen the report.
According to the source, the report says it was a Buk missile -- a Russian surface-to-air missile -- that was used, launched from a village in Russian rebel controlled territory.
Getting to the truth
Establishing who shot down flight MH17, how they did it, and from where, is the job of a Dutch-led international investigation team, which hopes to publish some of its findings in the new year. They are also involved with forensic work on the wreckage of the aircraft.
The Dutch prosecutor leading that investigation, Fred Westerbeke, told the BBC that investigators had been studying "billions" of internet pages, and tens of thousands of photos and videos related to the downing of the airliner.
He confirmed that his team had spoken to about 140 witnesses, and identified a number of "persons of interest", but he said it was too early to identify them as suspects, or release their names or nationalities.
Getting to the truth behind the downing of the airliner is a Herculean task, given the climate of mistruths and propaganda in eastern Ukraine, linked to the conflict in the region.
To counter accusations of bias, Mr Westerbeke said his team had to properly consider all theories and all claims.
"An alternative scenario, whoever brings it out, you have to prove that that could not have been the case", he said.
"We have to clear out all of the other options." he added.
A separate investigation, being carried out by the Dutch Safety Board, is expected to publish its full findings in October.
Speaking to the BBC ahead of the first anniversary of the disaster, Mr Pocock called on the UK government to take a more robust position in the pursuit of justice for the 10 British victims on board the plane.
He also questioned why Russia had expressed scepticism about the idea of an international tribunal.
"We mustn't lose sight of the fact that there were 80 children on that plane, including many babies," he said.
"Families were wiped out. There were numerous young adults, including Ben, who had barely started their adult lives, and in a blink of an eye, it was gone."
"We cannot and must not forget that."
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