MH17 survivors shocked by request for Trump to investigate plane crash

By Janene Pieters on January 31, 2017 - 14:55
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Donald Trump at the 20th Annual Semper Fidelis Gala in New York. April 22, 2015 (photo: U.S. Marine Corps). Donald Trump at the 20th Annual Semper Fidelis Gala in New York. April 22, 2015 (photo: U.S. Marine Corps)

Relatives of MH17 victims are shocked by a letter to American president Donald Trump asking him to start an independent investigation into the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The letter was written by candidate parliamentarian Thierry Baudet and 25 others, the Volkskrant reports. The MH17 survivors say they want no part in these "propaganda theories".

In the letter - which Baudet told the newspaper he is singing as individual and to campaign for his party Forum voor Democratie - the letter writers say that the investigation by the Dutch Safety Board and the Joint Investigation Team is not "independent and not convincing". They turned to Trump because in the past he seemed to attach more importance to the Russian denial that they shot down MH17 than the detailed investigation of the JIT. 

"The JIT gives veto power to Ukraine over what evidence may or may not be admitted. Why did the U.S. never release the primary radar images? Why did the Ukrainian air traffic control let the MH17 pilots carry out a route change? Is the team not suffering from tunnel vision that the offender is already known?" Baudet said to the newspaper. He hopes Trump will prompt a new independent investigation. "That would be a very good thing, instead of immediately blaming the Russians."

Thewas sent to Trump on November 24th last year, a few weeks after he won the American elections. 

The MH17 Foundation, which represents the relatives of the victims, denounced the letter. "The foundation and with it the relatives have no need to become a plaything in all these propaganda theories", Evert van Zijtveld of the foundation said to the newspaper. 

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