Remains of Shaliza Zaini Dewa to be flown to Australia

The remains of Shaliza Zaini Dewa, one of the 44 Malaysians who perished in the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash, are expected to be flown to Australia on Tuesday.

In disclosing this, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said this arrangement was requested by her family.

"Her remains are expected to be brought to Australia on Oct 14," Liow, who is also MCA president, told reporters at the conclusion of the party's 61st annual general assembly at Wisma MCA, Sunday.

The 45-year-old victim was one of the 298 people on board the Boeing 777-200 aircraft who were killed when it was shot down in eastern Ukraine while en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17.

She perished along with her husband, Hans van den Hende and their children – Australians Piers, 15, Marnix, 12, and Margaux van den Hende, eight.

They were returning from a holiday in Amsterdam to spend Hari Raya Aidilfitri with relatives in Kajang, Selangor, before returning to Melbourne when the aircraft was shot down.

Liow noted that the last Malaysian victim in the tragedy - Puan Sri Siti Amirah Prawira Kusuma, step-grandmother of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Defense Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein - was yet to be recovered.

Meanwhile, Liow said the international investigation team still faced difficulty to access the crash site near Donetsk due to the ongoing conflict between the Ukranian government and pro-Russia elements.

He pointed out that the probe into the incident was hampered by the onset of winter.

In other developments, Liow said more 40,000 MCA members at the divisional level would be able to directly elect the top party leaders in the party polls in 2016 following amendments to MCA's constitution.

Prior to this, only the delegates to the general assembly could do so.