MH17 crash: Malaysia to allocate about USD 6M for Dutch trial

The Malaysian government will spend MYR 23.3 million (USD 5.7 million) on the Dutch trial involving the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, according to Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

"The trial is currently ongoing [in the Netherlands] and MYR 23.3 million is 30% of the trial cost which the government will bear next year to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice," the minister said, according to The Star newspaper.

He added that the allocation will cover both lawyers’ fees and court costs.

"The country has a responsibility as it involved the downing of a Malaysian aircraft whose perpetrators must be punished," he added.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over conflict-hit Donbas in July 2014. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. All of them died.

The international Joint Investigation Team reported that the plane had been shot down from a Buk missile system that belongs to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Kursk.

On June 19, 2019, the JIT named four suspects believed to be involved in the transportation and combat use of the Buk missile system, from which MH17 flight had been downed. Three of them are Russians: Igor Girkin (Strelkov), former colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence service and former so-called defense minister of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic"; Sergey Dubinskiy, general (at the time of downing – colonel) of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and head of the so-called "Main Intelligence Directorate of the Donetsk People’s Republic"; Oleg Pulatov, lieutenant colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. The fourth suspect is Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian civilian, who fought on the side of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic."

In March 2020, the District Court of The Hague began the consideration of the case of the downing of flight MH17 in the sky over Donbas.

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