MOSCOW, November 5 (RIA Novosti) — Malaysia will play a major role in the investigation of the MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine, the country's Prime Minister Najib Razak stated Wednesday at a joint press conference with Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte.
"Malaysia has been invited to play a large part in the investigation, and we hope that this will become more evident in the coming days," Razak was quoted as saying by New Straits Times.
According to the prime minister, the Malaysian government will work closely with the governments of the Netherlands and Australia to achieve three main goals: to recover the remains and personal belongings of the passengers aboard the wrecked plane, to conduct a thorough investigation into the events surrounding the crash and to bring justice to all those responsible for the tragedy.
The Dutch prime minister said that the MH17 crash case is unlikely to be to put before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"We do not believe the ICC is the most suitable [court]. It will depend on the investigation which will be carried out by the Dutch Transport Safety Board," Rutte said.
On July 17, a Malaysia Airlines plane flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine"s eastern region of Donetsk, killing all 298 people on board. According to a preliminary report issued by the Dutch Safety Board early in September, the plane most likely broke up in mid-air as a result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from the outside.
Kiev accused independence supporters in eastern Ukraine of shooting the plane down, but has not provided any evidence to back this claim. The local militia leaders have said that they do not have weapons capable of shooting down a plane flying at 32,000 feet.
