MH17: Two years on, will justice finally be served?

July 17, 2016.

Two years after the downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, the focus is now on the Joint Investigation Team (JIT)'s report that will identify those responsible for the ill-fated incident.

Aviation experts and analysts said the much-awaited report which is scheduled to be published after this summer (June-July), would determine and help to track down those who were actually accountable for shooting down the Boeing 777 jet which cost the lives of all 298 people on board.

Universiti Kuala Lumpur's (UniKL) Test Pilot, Prof Mohd Harridon Mohamed Suffian, said the final report would be in great detail with firm reconstruction of the events where the forward fuselage of the airplane was mathematically proven to be impacted with projectiles believed to be originated from a BUK missile.

"With this in hand as our ammo, we are in a position to convince the relevant parties to expedite action against the perpetrators," Mohd Harridon told Bernama recently.

It was reported, on July 17, 2015, the Dutch Transportation Safety Board concluded its investigations with the finding that the Boeing 777 jet was hit by a Russian-made guided missile (BUK).

They said it was launched from territory controlled by pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine but did not identify the parties responsible for the tragedy.

However, Moscow has since denied the matter and asked the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to conduct a new investigation into the tragedy.

After this summer, JIT will present the first results of the criminal investigation into the crash of flight MH17 whereby it concerns the weapon which was used to shoot down the aircraft and the exact launch site of the weapon.

JIT – comprising experts from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine – is looking for other means to try those responsible, including using the International Court of Justice.

Mohd Harridon, who is also the former Head of Research and Innovation for UniKL, pointed out that Malaysia should wait for the final report before taking any legal action against the perpetrators, hence it is a good move since the team comprises of big players.

"Taking action stemming from the final report will show that our action is based upon consensus and evidence from these big players and in the case of perception, it indicates that our move is sanctioned by primary information and data," he said.

Echoing the same views, another aviation expert, Captain (R) Abdul Rahmat Omar Tun Mohd Haniff said Malaysia should only act against those culprits upon credible incriminating evidence.

"There is no tangible evidence to point to either the Ukrainian rebels of Russian-descent, or to the Ukrainian military themselves as both are the operators of the same BUK system.

"Furthermore, Igor Girkin is not the only rebel leader in the region. I believe Malaysia will only act upon credible evidence being presented," said the former Royal Malaysian Air Force officer.

Abdul Rahmat was responding to a question whether Malaysia should follow the footsteps of the aircraft victims' families who sued Igor Girkin, who allegedly orchestrated the shooting down of MH17.

Abdul Rahmat also suggested that while waiting for the outcome of the final report, Malaysia should also step up its efforts in garnering support from members of the United Nations and also from the Security Council of the United Nations.

According to him, this was due to current political scenario where certain members of the United Nations have the veto power to restrain certain actions.

On the same note, Mohd Harridon believed that Malaysia need to play a great role in persuading the World Court in The Hague to take action based upon evidence and comprehensive report produced by the Dutch safety board.

"The perpetrators should be prosecuted based upon the data and facts collected and it would be in the best interest of the families of the victims that justice is served and the degree of conviction is actuated based upon the severity of the crime," he said.

MH17 will be an unsolved mystery for at least another generation if there is no action taken from countries involved in the JIT and after that time, the whole incident will be forgotten from public memory.

Flight MH17, a Boeing 777-200ER airliner, was shot down over a conflict zone in eastern Ukraine while on a scheduled flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014.