Malaysia Airlines

Four suspects will be prosecuted for murder in connection with the downing of flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in July 2014, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) announced in a press conference on Wednesday. The trial against the four suspects will be held in the Netherlands, starting in March 2020. “We now have the information, have the proof, that the Russian Federation is involved in this tragedy, in this crime, one way or another.” Dutch Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said in the press conference. 

Prosecutors in the Netherlands are expected to announce its first criminal case in the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, sources close to the investigation reportedly told broadcaster RTL Nieuws. The Boeing passenger jet was shot down by a Russian buk missile while flying over eastern Ukraine, officials have said.

Fake news is a deep concern for the new Netherlands cabinet, and its suppression is a priority in the Dutch cabinet, a new letter sent to parliamentarians shows. Russia deserves much of the blame for a disinformation campaign in the Netherlands, Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongrenhas clearly states in a brief to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament.

Relatives and friends of people who died in flight MH17 are generally satisfied with the investigation results the Joint Investigation Team revealed on Wednesday. The JIT revealed that flight MH17 was shot down by a BUK missile transported from Russia to a pro-Russian separatist controlled field and then back to Russia again.

A court forced the Ministry of Security and Justice to publish more documents on the disaster with flight MH17 thanks to a joint call on the Freedom of Information Act by broadcasters NOS and RTL Nieuws and the Volkskrant. A number of new details were revealed, including that the Dutch government assumed from the first that Russian separatists were behind the downing of the plane.

The last Malaysia Airlines flight from Schiphol Airport is departing at 11:40 a.m. on Monday. The airline is withdrawing from several European markets, ANP reports.

Malaysia Airlines will no longer be flying to Amsterdam and Paris from next year. The airline singed a cooperation agreement with the Arabic Emirates and most of its Europe flights will in future be done only in cooperation with the Arabic airline.

Shrapnel from a Buk missile was found in the bodies of victims from the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash, according to a Ukrainian investigator that was formerly part of the international team researching the cause of the disaster. The revelation comes just one week before the Dutch Safety Board releases their final report on the July 2014 Boeing 777 crash in eastern Ukraine.

Dutch King Willem-Alexander addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New Yorkby highlighting seventy years of the Netherlands work with the UN on achievements that have helped shape and improve today's world. In a speech where he strongly advocated for the Netherlands to get a seat on the UN Security Council, he also called upon all the nations of the world to show solidarity in the face of the current refugee crisis, noting that the Netherlands has again increased its contribution to humanitarian assistance making it one of the world’s largest donors.

The anonymous group of people who put up 47 million dollars for concrete evidence about suspects responsible for bringing down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 say they have the information they wanted, German private investigator Josef Resch says, according to newspaper Der Spiegel. Resch claims he was hired by the group to ferret out details and verify information they obtained.

Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta claims to have obtained a confidential analytical report on the MH17 crash that suggests it was a BUK-M1 missile that shot down the plane. The newspaper believes it is likely a report by official Russian military experts, and will be submitted to Dutch and international experts investigating the crash.