Dutch expert says idea of setting up MH17 tribunal is ‘weird’

THE HAGUE, July 13. /TASS/. The idea of establishing an international tribunal on the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine almost a year ago is at least strange, a Dutch journalist and the author of a book on the tragedy, Joost Niemoller said on Monday.

"It is also very weird. Because you have a situation when the public prosecution is setting up an investigation and now we hear that they still don’t know for which judge they are going to bring it. So what kind of an investigation is that?" Niemoller said.

"When you bring something like this for an international court you have to make it clear what kind of law there must be," he said adding: "Normally, the public prosecution is part of the whole juridical system and they know for which judge they will bring it. "

The expert said it is still also unclear what kind of law it will be - either Dutch, Russian or Ukrainian. "It will be an enormous problem. And also what is the proof? Nobody seems to have any idea," he said.

The idea of establishing the international tribunal is supported by the Dutch government in cooperation with other sides participating in the investigation - Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine. The Russian side sees no need in this.

On July 17, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 passenger airliner on flight MH17 from the Dutch city of Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk Region in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board who were the citizens of 10 countries and most of them - 193 people - were Dutch nationals.

Experts believe that the MH17 flight was shot down over Ukrainian airspace with a ground-to-air or an air-to-air missile.