MH17 probe findings to be released to families

The loved ones of the 298 victims of Flight MH17, including 40 Australians, are set to be briefed before details of the criminal investigation are made public. WARNING: GRAPHIC

The families of the 298 victims of MH17 will be privately briefed before details of the criminal investigation into the shooting down of the aircraft over Ukraine are made public.

A Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which includes authorities from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and the Ukraine, will release its findings in Amsterdam at 9pm AEST.

Developments in the criminal investigation are expected to be revealed.

Any charges would be heard in the Netherlands, where the majority of the victims of the aviation tragedy came from.

Melbourne couple Elaine Teoh and Emiel Mahler were killed in the MH17 disaster.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was attacked by pro-Russian separatists over eastern Ukraine while flying between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, killing 298 people on board, including 40 who called Australia home.

The JIT was formed in 2014 with the purpose of establishing the facts of the case, identifying those responsible and gathering evidence for criminal prosecution.

MH17 crash suspects to be named: reports

Part of the destroyed plane at the crash site in the village of Grabovo in Ukraine. Picture: AFP

The team previously announced the prosecution of those involved would take place in the Netherlands and that the Buk missile that downed the flight belonged to the Russian army.

The JIT believes the missile was supplied by the country’s 53rd anti-aircraft brigade in Kursk.

Russia has repeatedly rejected claims it was involved and Ambassador of Russia, Grigory Logvinov last year slammed the JIT.

“The ‘investigation’ is conducted almost completely on the basis of information from social networks and several international non-governmental organisations, which have tainted themselves long ago by fakes, forgeries, primitive fabrications and so on,” he said.

Sydney man Victor Oreshkin was returning from a five-week European holiday when he died.

Trilateral talks between Dutch, Australian and Russian officials took place in March.

Details of the meeting were not released, but in a joint press conference with Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Stef Blok said the investigation remained “committed to achieving truth, justice and accountability”.

One of the last photos taken of Sister Philomene Tiernan at the Sacred Heart Spirituality Conference in the UK, before MH17 was shot down over Ukraine.

Carol and Michael Clancy died in the disaster. Picture: Anna Fitzgerald.

“We are both fully confident that we will continue to work together closely and productively in the future,” he said.

He declined to answer questions about how open Russia was to talks and whether compensation for families of the victims was discussed.

Among the Australians killed were Nick Norris, 68, and his grandchildren, Mo, 12, Evie, 10, and Otis, 8.

Their parents, Perth Couple Marite ‘Rin’ Norris and Anthony ‘Maz’ Maslin, opened up to Australian Story in a segment aired last week about the “hell” they were in after their children died.

“Our world as we knew it was absolutely over in that moment and we just started to say, ‘when the world ended’ and that’s how we refer to it now,” Ms Norris said.

The couple had a fourth child, Violet, in 2016 and said she brought a “tiny amount of peace”

to their lives.

Perth siblings Mo, Otis and Evie died alongside their grandfather in the MH17 disaster.

Others slain included Sister Philomene Tiernan, who taught at the Catholic School of the Sacred Heart in Sydney, Victorian real estate agent Albert Rizk and his wife Maree and Sydney man Victor Oreshkin, who was returning from a five-week European holiday.

As well as the Australian passengers, there was one New Zealander, 10 British, 193 Dutch, 43 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians and others from Germany, Belgium, Canada and the Philippines.

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Originally published as MH17 probe findings to be released to families