Malaysia stands firm in wanting strong evidence from MH17 crash probe

KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 (Bernama) -- Malaysia considers the probe into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 five years ago as an ongoing process because it is yet to be presented with solid evidence despite the charging of four suspects, said Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.

He said this is because there are still several questions and concerns over the incident, especially when Malaysia joined the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) several months after it was established.

“As long as we don’t clearly see concrete evidence linked to the four names, we consider the matter as still in the investigation process,” he said when asked to comment on JIT’s move to charge four men over the death of the passengers and crew on board flight MH17.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said Malaysia was unhappy with the latest report on the downing of flight MH17 and asked for proof, not just hearsay, in the investigation.

On June 19, international investigators charged four people -- three Russians and one Ukranian -- with murder over the 2014 shooting down of MH17 in eastern Ukraine in which all 298 people on board were killed.  

“The trial will begin in March 2020. There is still time to find the relevant evidence. We will wait until the trial at the court and will evaluate the results later,” he said after launching the ‘Bantuan Demokrasi dan Pendanaan Asing: Melewati Pertukaran Rejim’ book by Muhammad Takiyuddin Ismail, which was published by Universiti Malaysia (UM) Press.

MH17 was on its way to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam when it was shot down and crashed near Torez in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, about 40 km from the Russian border, on July 17, 2014.

-- BERNAMA