MH17 Technical Report A Step Forward To Prosecute Perpetrators - Ukraine Envoy

By Nur Ashikin Abdul Aziz and Nabilah Saleh KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 (Bernama) – The recently published Dutch Safety Board's (DSB) technical report on MH17, is a step forward in assisting criminal investigations by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to trace and prosecute the perpetrators, Ukrainian Ambassador to Malaysia Ihor Humennyi said. He said that although the report did not identify the culprit as anticipated by many, the five-nation JIT report to be released in the near future will delve further into the criminal aspect of the investigation. "The DSB technical report is important to all of us as it open doors for further work in the investigation process," he told Bernama in a recent interview at the national news agency's headquarters, here. "Although it does not mention who is responsible and used a lot of technical terms, this would contribute to the criminal report that will finally bring closure to the case," the envoy said. JIT, comprising the Netherlands, Malaysia, Belgium, Ukraine and Australia, was formed to establish the facts, identify those responsible for the crash and to collect evidence, which can be used in court while the DSB-led investigation team focused on the technical aspects of the tragedy which evolved around the issues of causes of the crash. The DSB team, which also comprises Malaysia, Ukraine, the UK, the US, Australia and Russia, was not concerned with question of blame or liability as answering those questions fall under the criminal investigation, according to the DSB official website. On Tuesday, the DSB concluded that MH17 was shot down by a Russian-made surface-to-air BUK missile while cruising at 33,000 ft over rebel-held eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard, on July 17 last year. Russia has disputed the findings and at a press conference on Thursday, Russian Ambassador to Malaysia Valery N.Yermolov had said it was "not true" as Russia had stopped owning such missiles in 2011. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, meanwhile, had said that with the DSB report, the JIT criminal investigations must provide definitive answers and allow Malaysia to pursue the strongest action possible against those responsible. Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai had said that with the DSB report the JIT should be able to make some inferences from the technical analysis into who fired the missile that bought down the MH17. -- BERNAMA