Australian investigators seek arrests in MH17 quest for justice

IN an anonymous building, ten Australian investigators are building a criminal case against the masterminds behind the MH17 disaster.

IN an anonymous building in the Netherlands, a team of Australian police officers is at the centre of an international law enforcement team which is working to bring those responsible for downing MH17 to justice.

It has been more than three years since the Malaysia Airlines flight was shot out of the sky above Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, including 38 citizens or residents of Australia.

Three long years since the dreadful images were broadcast across the world of a shattered plane,

suitcases and plane seats scattered across the fields for 50km, and soldiers callously searching the luggage of dead passengers and waving a toy monkey in the air.

The reconstruction of MH17 after pieces of the aircraft were collected. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

No-one has been arrested or extradited.

But the senior investigating officer for the Australian Federal Police team which is working full-time in the Netherlands and in Ukraine said justice would be served.

“I’m confident that we will,’’ Detective-Superintendent David Nelson said, when asked if police

would bring charges against the perpetrators.

The Detective-Superintendent David Nelson senior investigating officer from the Australian Federal Police on the MH17 Joint Investigation Team

The AFP has 10 police officers assigned permanently to the MH17 investigation, working hand-in-glove with the four other members of the Joint Investigation Team — the Netherlands, Ukraine, Malaysia and Belgium.

These countries represent those most affected by the tragedy on July 17, 2014, which saw flight

MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur shot out of the sky as it cruised 10km above Donetsk

region in eastern Ukraine.

Below, a war was being fought between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists. It had

been festering for years but exploded in 2014 following the ouster of pro-Moscow Ukrainian

president Viktor Yanukovych, and Russian’s military annexation of the Crimea peninsula.

Some airlines including Qantas had stopped flying over the war zone, but the International Civil

Aviation Organisation had deemed it safe for passenger aircraft to continue to fly over the area,

provided they were above 32,000 feet (9753m).

MH17 was flying at 33,000 feet (10,058m) when it was blasted out of the sky, killing all 15 crew and 283 passengers.

Since then, the Australian Government has been funding an AFP contingent to work alongside the Dutch prosecutors, with the aim of bringing the perpetrators of what was either a criminally

negligent accident, or a deliberate act of mass murder, to justice.

Wreckage and debris at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 pictured near the village of Hrabove (Grabovo), Donetsk region in 2014. Picture: Reuters

REVELATIONS AND EVIDENCE

With Russia denying responsibility and involvement, the decision was made earlier this year to base any prosecution in the Netherlands, rather than attempt an international war crimes trial.

Nelson said the AFP’s mandate was to support the Dutch prosecutors and police officers who were bringing the matter to trial.

“It’s very much about working with the Dutch and our other (investigation) partners … a combined effort in building the brief of evidence and conducting the criminal investigation,’’ Nelson said.

Investigations from aviation officials have revealed the Boeing 7777-200ER broke up midair after it was struck near the cockpit by a Russian-manufactured Buk surface-to- air missile.

The Dutch safety board determined a 9N314M warhead was fitted onto a 9M83 series missile,

which was fired from a launcher transported across the border from Russia on the morning of the strike.

The launcher was taken back across the border into Russia the next day.

In September last year, Dutch chief police investigator Wilbert Paulissen said the missile was fired from a field near the village of Pervomaiskyi which was then in Russian hands.

“Based on the criminal investigation we have concluded the flight MH17 was brought down by the BUK missile of the series 9M83 that came from the territory of the Russian Federation,’’ he said.

This photo from an anonymous source provided by the Dutch Public Prosecution's Office (OM) and Joint Criminal Investigation Team (JIT), shows a Buk-Telar missile launching system probably taken on July 17, 2014, in the town of Makeevka, Ukraine. Picture JIT via AP

‘PERSONS OF INTEREST’

Despite this technical evidence, no individual has ever been charged or extradited although Nelson confirmed there were more than 100 persons of interest in the case.

“Now the real focus is on the who,’’ Nelson said.

“The focus now is who was involved, and that includes … who assisted in the transportation to the launch site and who was ordering, commanding that piece of equipment.

“Who ordered it, who asked for it to be delivered to the launch site and who commanded it and

controlled the firing of the missile.’’

Asked if he believed it was accident or an intentional act, Nelson replied:

“I couldn’t say hand on heart which one of those two scenarios it is right now.’’

In the moments after the plane was downed, pro-Moscow rebel leader Igor Strelkov tweeted that his men had shot down a Ukrainian air force Antonov-26. Several military aircraft had been shot out of the sky in previous days.

“We just hit down An-26. We warned you … do not fly in ‘our sky’,’’ he wrote.

“And here is the video ­confirmation of the ‘bird dropping’.”

The video was quickly deleted when it was determined the jet was a civilian passenger jet carrying 298 innocent people.

Nelson would not say specifically if the police team was looking at Russian suspects.

Asked how any Russian witnesses or suspects could be extradited to the Netherlands, he replied:

“That’s a very good question.’’

Police expect to potentially lay charges of murder, or Dutch-specific crimes relating to the downing of an aircraft.

“Those are two of the primary offences we are looking at,’’ Nelson said.

Relatives attend the unveiling of the National Monument for the MH17 victims in Vijfhuizen. Picture: AFP

VICTIMS REMEMBERED

On the third anniversary of the crash this year, many of the victims’ relatives came to Amsterdam to attend the opening of a new MH17 memorial outside Schiphol Airport, the departure airport for the doomed flight. Afterwards, the families went to an Australian pub in Amsterdam, to attend a function organised by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Nelson went along too.

“That informal gathering really gave them a chance to come together after the memorial. It was nice to just spend some time with the families and what they told me was it was nice to put a face to the AFP’s presence here,’’ Nelson said.

People carrying flowers as they arrive at a service to mark the three year anniversary of the downing of MH17 near Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

The Australian victims of the tragedy included the three Maslin children from Perth — Mo, 12, Evie, 10 and Otis, 8, who were flying home with their grandfather Nick Norris.

A family of five from Melbourne’s western suburbs — residents Shaliza Zain Dewa, her husband

Johannes van den Hende and their children Piers, 15, Marnix, 12 and Margaux, 8, were also killed.

Evie, Mo and Otis Maslinwho were on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 shot down in the Ukraine. Picture: Supplied

“It was an unprecedented event to have a commercial airline shot down in a war zone,’’ Nelson said.

“Certainly for those who played a part in that downing on MH17, I’m sure that would play on their minds, given that children and that amount of people lost their lives quite innocently.’’