An irate former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has demanded that the wreckage of MH17 should be brought back to Malaysia for examination.

He claims that Malaysia is apparently being excluded from the investigation before being “only grudgingly permitted” to examine the wreckage in the Netherlands.

“Granted the highest number of the passengers who lost their lives were Dutch. But under what law is the aircraft the property of the Dutch...?

“As a Malaysian I demand that the wreckage of MH 17 be brought back to Malaysia as a matter of right. Malaysians should examine it in full view of the people.

“After all it is Malaysia which is being sued by the relatives of the victims,” he wrote in his blog yesterday.

The MH17 tragedy took place on July 17, where all 298 persons on board were killed in a suspected shooting in Ukrainian airspace. Of these, 193 persons are Dutch nationals.

There are currently two parallel investigations into the incident - a technical investigation formed under the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) rules on air crash investigation, and an international criminal inquiry led by the Dutch Public Prosecution Service.

Under ICAO’s rules, Ukraine is responsible for the technical investigation, but it has delegated this to the Dutch Safety Board.

The same rules also stipulate that Malaysia - as the state that operated the downed aircraft - should have a representative in the investigation, and this requirement has been adhered to from the beginning.

As for the criminal investigation, Malaysia was only admitted as a full member of the J oint Investigation Team (JIT) on Dec 4, although Malaysia had been present in earlier meetings at The Hague that led to JIT’s formation.

Other members of the JIT are the Netherlands, Australia, Ukraine and Belgium.

The wreckage of the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft has been moved from Ukraine to the Netherlands and arrived on Dec 9 to be reconstructed as part of the investigations.

‘Nato bent on going to war against Russia’

Meanwhile, Mahathir raised questions on how is the US quick to accuse pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine of shooting down MH17, and even knew the type of missile used.

“Now on the assumption that a Russian missile was used to down MH17, the US and Europe have applied sanctions against Russia. Nato seems bent on going to war against Russia.

“The assassination of an archduke launched the First World War which killed millions. Any little incident is enough for Europe and America to go on a killing spree,” he said.

Separatist forces have denied shooting down MH17, while Russia has denied that is supplies arms to the separatists.

Both have blamed the Ukrainian government of shooting down MH17, while Ukraine also points fingers at the separatists.

MH17 was flying over separatist-held territory in East Ukraine when it was shot down.

Thus far, the Dutch Safety Board has only determined that MH17 was struck by a “large number of high energy objects ” coming from outside the aircraft, leading to its breakup in mid-air.