UKRAINIAN police have arrested a man on suspicion of trying to assassinate the chief expert witness in the probe into the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 in July 2014, The Independent reported.

Ukraine’s senior forensic scientist, Oleksandr Ruvin, was shot in the leg late last year. The authorities suspect the attack was linked to his role in the crash probe.

The authorities will hold a press conference later today to reveal more details of the arrest.

All 298 passengers and crew onboard the plane - most of them Dutch - died when it was shot down en route to Kuala Lumpur over war-torn eastern Ukraine in July 2014.

Officials with the Dutch safety board (OVV) concluded in their investigation last year that the Boeing 777 was hit by a Russian-made BUK missile fired from territory held by pro-Russian rebels. But they did not say definitively who pulled the trigger.

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A separate criminal investigation is also underway in the Netherlands to try to find those responsible and bring them to justice.

The Dutch investigation, did however, blame the Ukrainian government for not closing the airspace over its war torn east, an area that MH17's flight path nearly bisected.


Russian officials were quick to call the Dutch report biased and political.

In July last year, Malaysia, backed by the other members of JIT, pushed for an international tribunal to try the culprits, but Russia used its veto power in the United Nations to block the setting up of such a body.


Eleven of the 15 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution, which had been drafted by Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.

While Russia exercised its veto, Angola, China and Venezuela abstained.