The criminal investigation team tasked with probing the MH17 tragedy has agreed to allow Malaysia to join as a member.

 

The decision was made by other members of the Joint Investigation Team – which are prosecutors and investigators from the Netherlands, Australia, Ukraine and Belgium – following a meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, yesterday.

 

“The participants shared information on the ongoing criminal investigation and discussed progress in identifying the 298 victims of the crash.

 

“They agreed to continue the international coordination of the criminal investigation,” said Eurojust in a statement yesterday.

 

Eurojust is a European Union agency for judicial cooperation, and had convened coordination meetings at the request of the Dutch Public Prosecution Service since the first one on July 28.

 

“Its mandate is to facilitate the coordination and cooperation of the member states, and it can also invite countries from outside the European Union to participate in coordination meetings to plan strategies in fighting serious organised crime,” Eurojust said in a separate press release at the time.

 

MH17 was shot down while flying over a combat zone in Ukraine, between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists, on July 17. All 298 on board – predominantly Dutch citizens – were killed.

 

Parallel investigations

The aircraft’s wreckage was only recovered on Nov 24, after delays caused by the ongoing fighting, although the bodies of most of the victims were recovered and repatriated earlier.

 

Immediately after the tragedy, Ukraine and its allies had accused separatist forces of firing a Russian-supplied Buk surface-to-air missile at the aircraft, whereas Russia and separatist forces blamed Ukraine of shooting down MH17.

 

In particular, Russian state-controlled media had played up allegations that MH17 was brought down by cannon fire from Ukrainian air force jets.

 

The Joint Investigation Team’s criminal inquiry will run in parallel to a technical investigation into the incident which is headed by the Dutch Safety Board.

 

The board had earlier released a preliminary report, saying that MH17 was struck by a "large number of high-energy objects", which led to a mid-air break-up of the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft.

 

The report does not say whether the objects were missile shrapnel, cannon shells, or something else. However a second report is expected by the first anniversary of the tragedy.