10 YEARS SINCE DOWNING OF MH17: MALAYSIA REMAINS STEADFAST IN PURSUING JUSTICE

By Lucia Terey Anak John

KUALA LUMPUR,  July 17 (Bernama) -- It has been a decade since the black tragedy befell Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH17 was shot down by Russian-controlled forces while flying over eastern Ukraine and crashed from a height of 30,000 feet, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed.

The victims in the ill-fated Boeing 777 aircraft comprised 93 Dutch nationals, Malaysian (43), Australian (27), Indonesian (12), British (10), Belgium (four ), German (four), Filipino (three) and one each from Canada and New Zealand.

The shooting down of MAS Flight 17 on July 17, 2014, provoked reactions from many countries and organisations and was a shocking tragedy for Malaysia as it was Malaysia Airlines’ second aircraft loss, after the disappearance of Flight 370 four months prior on March 8, which until now remains a mystery to the history of world aviation.

The MAS commercial flight MH17 departed at 12.15 pm (Amsterdam time) from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and was scheduled to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 6.10 am (Malaysian time) on Friday, July 18.

 However, at 10.15 pm (Malaysian time) MAS received information from the Ukrainian Air Traffic Control (ATC) that it lost contact with Flight MH17 at 1415 (GMT), at a position 30 kilometres (km) from Tamak, about 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.

International news later reported the discovery of plane wreckage near the Ukrainian village of Grobovo in rebel-held territory near the Russian border with several images showing wreckage, bodies and personal belongings strewn over several kilometers away.

Based on the final report of the crash issued by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on May 24, 2018,  after 15 months of investigation, the plane was shot down by the Russian military's BUK TELAR missile which hit the left side of the plane's cockpit.

However, despite the various evidence found by the investigative team, no party claimed responsibility for shooting down the plane, but in seeking justice for the victims and their families, Malaysia and several countries involved have tried their best to bring the mastermind responsible to justice.

This included urging the United Nations Security Council (UN) to establish a criminal tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the crime and in June 2019, three Russians, Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov, as well as a Ukrainian, Leonid Kharchenko, were charged in absentia in the District Court of The Hague on charges of murder.

On Nov 17, 2022, the court sentenced Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko to life imprisonment after they were found guilty of shooting down flight MH17 and killing all 298 passengers and crew while Pulatov was acquitted on the same charge.

Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko were also ordered to pay more than 16 million Euros (RM75.26 million) in compensation to relatives of the victims.

The court concluded that MH17 was shot down by a Russian-made BUK missile from an agricultural field in eastern Ukraine, citing extensive evidence that did not leave “any possibility for reasonable doubt whatsoever”.

"This is clear from pictures of smoke trails in the sky, statements of a protected witness, satellite images, intercepted telephone conversations and transmission pole data, pictures and videos of a BUK TELAR unit being transported and unloaded," according to the judgment.

Meanwhile, last July 15,  Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Malaysia remained steadfast and committed to continuing its ongoing legal action at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Netherlands against those responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.

Universiti Kuala Lumpur's Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology head of the aviation search and rescue department, Associate Professor Dr Mohd Harridon Mohamed Suffian said that although the culprits had been convicted of the offence, the punishment against them could not be carried out.

"Even though they have been convicted, the steps to bring them to physical punishment seem to have made no real progress. This worries the families of the victims who want justice for their loved ones," he told Bernama.

However, he said the government's assurance to continue to demand justice for the victims involved is a relief to them.

-- BERNAMA