MH17 The alleged shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 aircraft in eastern Ukraine is a “gross violation of international law”, said a New York-based legal expert who provides counsel on international law.

The expert told Bernama on condition of anonymity that United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay might be right in interpreting the act as a war crime.

Navi, on Monday had said that the alleged shooting down of MH17 was a “war crime” and called for an urgent and thorough investigation into the incident.

Pillay’s comments were made during the release of a new report by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, which called for greater care to avoid civilian killings and injuries.

The reported shooting down of the MAS plane is still being hotly debated in the United States (US) diplomatic and aviation circles.

The UN Security Council had already called on July 21 for an international investigation into the incident, and demanded that armed groups allow investigators, technical experts and others complete access to the crash site.

Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 298 passengers went down in eastern Ukraine on July 17.

The Boeing 777-200 aircraft was believed to have been shot down by a surface-to-air missile. However, no one has claimed responsibility for the barbaric act.

- Bernama