No evidence that body parts remain at MH17 crash site: Justice Min

There is no evidence that there are still human remains on the site where flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Minister Stef Blok of Security and Justice said on Thursday. His Ministry studies all photos and statements made by Dutch journalist Michel Spekkers, who brought back a piece of bone and other items found at the crash site in January. The bone fragment belonged to one of the MH17 victims.

The news about the bone caused a commotion among the relatives of the victims, who demanded that another investigation be done at the crash site. Spekkers said that much more can be found at the site, but according to Blok, there is no evidence for this, RTL Nieuws reports.

The Minister added that he does have sympathy for the bereaved who need to be certain that nothing is left at the scene. The Ukrainian authorities plan to search the crash site again for remains and personal belongings in the spring, after the snow melted. The Netherlands is looking into what support is needed in this search, Blok said.

The Dutch Public Prosecutor also made an MH17 related announcement on Thursday, according to the broadcaster. The Prosecutor stated that investigating radar images provided by Russia may still take some time. The images were supplied in an unreadable format, so it is still impossible to determine whether the material is usable or even authentic.

The Prosecutor submitted its first request to Russia for radar images of the MH17 disaster in 2014, but ran into walls time and again. The Russians finally handed over radar images to the Joint Investigation Team only after the preliminary results of the investigation into the downing of the plane were released. As the radar images are unreadable, the Prosecutor will make another request for legal assistance. It is unclear how long this will take.