MH17 probe still an ongoing process, says Saifuddin

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): Malaysia considers the probe into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 to be an ongoing process because it has yet to be presented with solid evidence despite the charging of four suspects, says Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.

He said this is because there are still several questions and concerns over the incident, especially when Malaysia joined the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) several months after it was established.

"As long as we don’t clearly see concrete evidence linked to the four names, we consider the matter to be still under investigation,” he said when asked to comment on JIT’s move to charge four men over the death of the passengers and crew on board MH17.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said Malaysia was unhappy with the latest report on the downing of MH17 and asked for proof and not just hearsay in the investigation.

On June 19, international investigators charged three Russians and one Ukranian with murder over the 2014 shooting down of MH17 in eastern Ukraine, which killed 298 people.

"The trial will begin in March 2020. There is still time to find the relevant evidence. We will wait until the trial in court and we will evaluate the results later,” he said.

Saifuddin said this on Friday (June 28) after launching the "Bantuan Demokrasi dan Pendanaan Asing: Melewati Pertukaran Rejim" book by Muhammad Takiyuddin Ismail, which was published by Universiti Malaysia (UM) Press.

MH17 was on its way to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam when it was shot down and crashed near Torez in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, about 40km from the Russian border on July 17, 2014. -Bernama