March 14, 2022
3:36 PM GMT+7 Last Updated
2 hours ago
A view shows a memorial to victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 plane crash near the village of Hrabove in Donetsk region, Ukraine March 9, 2020. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
SYDNEY, March 14
(Reuters) - Australia and the Netherlands said they had begun joint legal
action against Russia at the International Civil Aviation Organisation over the
downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 eight years ago.
Russia was responsible
under international law for the downing of the flight, and action in the United
Nations aviation council was a step forward in the fight for justice for 298
victims, including 38 Australians, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and
Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement on Monday.
Australia said the
incident was a clear breach of a convention to protect civilian aircraft from
weapons fire.
The Dutch government
said in a statement the UN Security Council had also been informed of the step.
Dutch Foreign Minister
Wopke Hoekstra said in the statement: "The death of 298 civilians,
including 196 Dutch, cannot and should not remain without consequences. The
current events in Ukraine underscore the vital importance of this."
The joint action under
Article 84 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation is separate to a
Dutch murder trial for four suspects over their individual criminal
responsibility.
Australia said it was
seeking full reparations from Russia for the injury caused, and the suspension
of Russia's voting power in the aviation council, which sets standards for
civilian air travel.
A view shows a cross near the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 plane, that was shot down over territory held by pro-Russian separatists in 2014, outside the village of Hrabove in Donetsk Region, Ukraine June 19, 2019. A sign on the cross reads "Save and Protect. Hrabove". REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo
While it has no
regulatory power, the Montreal-based ICAO sits at the centre of a system of
safety and security standards that operates across political barriers but
requires an often slow-moving consensus.
"Russia’s
unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine and the escalation of its
aggression underscores the need to continue our enduring efforts to hold Russia
to account for its blatant violation of international law and the UN Charter,
including threats to Ukraine’s sovereignty and airspace," Morrison and
Payne said in the statement.
MH17 was flying from
Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014 when it was hit over rebel-held
eastern Ukraine by what international investigators and prosecutors say was a
Russian-made surface-to-air missile.
Moscow has always
denied involvement and has promoted a range of alternative theories, which
international investigators have rejected as unsupported by evidence.
A verdict in the
murder trial, involving three Russians and a Ukrainian who remain at large, is
expected later this year. None of the defendants have attended the Dutch court.
Australia and the
Netherlands would rely on evidence MH17 was shot down by a Russian
surface-to-air missile system transported from Russia to an area of eastern
Ukraine under the control of Russian-backed separatists, and it was accompanied
by a Russian military crew, the statement said.
The missile system was
returned to Russia shortly after the downing of MH17, it said.
"Russia has to
date refused to take responsibility for its clear role in this incident,"
Payne told reporters in Sydney on Monday.
Australia and the
Netherlands had pursued negotiations with Russia in good faith over the
incident, but Russia unilaterally withdrew from the talks in 2020, she said.
Reporting by Kirsty
Needham; Additional reporting by Toby Sterling and Tim Hepher; Editing by Raju
Gopalakrishnan
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