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Malaysian PM to talk MH17 crash investigation in New York

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

SINGAPORE, September 25. /TASS/. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is due to meet with his colleagues from Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ukraine in New York to discuss the investigation into the Boeing crash in the Donetsk region in July 2014, the country’s foreign minister said.

"The main goal of the meeting of parties to the joint investigation will be to confirm the efforts of the sides towards searching for those guilty who are to be brought to justice," Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said unveiling the program of the PM's participation at the UN General Assembly’s session next week.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop earlier said the meeting is expected to discuss a proposal on setting up a special tribunal that will not need the approval of the UN Security Council.

On July 29, the UN Security Council failed to pass a resolution on establishing a tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the MH17 crash. The document submitted by Malaysia in collaboration with a number of other countries was backed by 11 Security Council member-states, 3 countries (Angola, Venezuela and China) abstained, which was sufficient for passing the resolution.

However, Russia used its veto right to block the passing of the document. Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said following the voting that the draft resolution was "devoid of any legal and case-law foundation," and that its authors gave preference to the political and propaganda purposes over the practical ones.

Malaysia’s authorities later said they were ready to consider an option for creating an international court for holding accountable those behind the tragedy.

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 Ukraine with a ground-to-air or an air-to-air missile.

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