Case Involving Downing Of Flight MH17 Should Be Tried In Malaysian Court

By Siti Baaqiah Mamat KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 (Bernama) -- The case involving the downing of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in July last year should be tried in a Malaysian court. The proposal was raised by Senior Fellow at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Dr Sufian Jusoh in an interview with Bernama. "This is possible because Malaysia has the right to protect the rights of Malaysians who died in the tragedy, as well as their families, to ensure complete transparency in the investigation in this country," he said. According to him, the fact that the Boeing 777 national carrier is a state-owned airline reinforced the need for the incident which left 298 passengers and crew, including 43 Malaysians dead, to be investigated in Malaysia. The Dutch Safety Board in its final report on the July 17, 2014 crash released last Tuesday, confirmed that Flight MH17 was shot down by a BUK surface-to-air missile fired from eastern Ukraine. The report was released after 15 months of investigation carried out by the Board which involved seven countries, namely Australia, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America and Russia. Sufian said the report merely stated that a BUK missile was used, but the maker of the weapon was not necessarily the one who shot down the plane which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. "That is why we need to know the real criminals behind the downing of Flight MH17," he said, adding that the plane was cruising at 33,000 feet. Sufian also cited a case prosecuted in Malaysia involving seven Somali pirates who opened fire at the Royal Malaysian Navy when they robbed MT Bunga Laurel merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden, to back his stand that MH17 could be tried in Malaysia. Following the incident in the Gulf of Aden on Jan 20, 2011, the Somalis were sentenced to eight to 10 years' imprisonment. In the meantime, Sufian stressed that Malaysia needed to capitalise on her diplomatic relations with Russia and Ukraine in finding a way to bring the criminals linked to the MH17 shooting to court in Malaysia. According to him, even though Malaysia is not a super power, she could use her influence at international level, as member of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), ASEAN and non-permanent member of United Nations Security Council to achieve the goal. "Small nations can take advantage of super powers to get justice but we need diplomatic wisdom in international relations to enable us to get justice. "Let us say we managed to catch the person who shot down the plane, we need to testify in court, so the documents used in the investigation by the international investigation team should be presented in court as part of the evidence. "I don't think countries like The Netherlands or other countries involved in the investigation will refuse to cooperate because their citizens too perished in the crash," he noted. -- BERNAMA