Make amends over MH17 crash, Putin urged

SYDNEY: Russian President Vladimir Putin must “make amends” for those killed on a Malaysia Airlines jet shot down over Ukraine in 2014, a lawyer said yesterday, ahead of the third anniversary of the disaster.

The jet was downed in conflicttorn eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people on board, including 38 Australian citizens and residents.

Initial findings last year concluded the Boeing 777 aircraft was shot down by a missile transported from Russia, but Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement, putting the blame on Kiev.

“My clients have waited three years, Mr Putin. There is still no accountability,” Jerome Skinner, an American lawyer representing victims from Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Do you not feel that such trag- ic loss deserves explanation? You stand as the only man who can set this right. I will use the European Court of Human Rights and every other avenue available to bring the Kremlin to accountability... M e e t m e a n d f i n a l l y ma ke amends for the victims of this tragedy,” he said.

Skinner’s plea came a week after countries leading the joint investigation team — Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine — agreed that any trials would be carried out within the Dutch legal system.

Preliminary criminal findings have said around 100 people were under investigation for playing “an active role” in the disaster.

International investigators last month released videos of MH17 relatives talking about the pain of losing their loved ones, in the hope it would spur residents in Ukraine to come forward with new information, Dutch media said. AFP