STRASBOURG: The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace) is not planning to discuss the MH17 plane that crashed in 2014 in Eastern Ukraine this week, although there have been proposals to do it, the head of one of the Pace political groups, Tiny Kox, told Sputnik news agency.
Kox said there would not be an urgent debate this week, but leaders of the political groups would think of how to develop a proposal into a resolution.
He added that it had earlier been planned to discuss at the session whether the assembly can, within the next few months, prepare a report on the need for all member states to participate in the MH17 investigation.
On Wednesday, the Joint Investigation team (JIT) released names of four suspects in the case – three Russians and one Ukrainian. The investigators, whose conclusions Russia had previously questioned, believe them to be responsible for the delivery of a Buk missile system to a launch site and for the strike on the passenger plane MH17. The JIT said that the court hearing on the case would take place in the Netherlands, starting March 9, 2020. The JIT includes representatives of Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry responded to the latest findings of the JIT, calling them groundless accusations against Russia, stressing that the JIT had not brought forward any credible proof. The ministry rejected allegations of Moscow refusing to cooperate with the investigation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had never shirked responsibility but there was no proof in the situation with Boeing.
The Malaysian Airlines Boeing crashed on July 17, 2014. All 298 people on board were killed in a crash. Kiev blamed a local militia for downing the plane, but they said they did not have any weapons that would allow them to down an aircraft at that altitude. Russia has suggested that the plane was downed by a Ukrainian missile. — Bernama
