The Netherlands is changing the legislation regarding in absentia condemnation for the perpetrators of the crash of the Malaysian Airlines jetliner MH17 which was downed over eastern Ukraine, said Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine on European integration Olena Zerkal during an interview with Hromadske.

"They [the Dutch authorities] are amending the legislation. This is why the negotiations on the agreement have continued for so long. In order to make this possible, together with the submission for ratification of this agreement, they will file changes in their criminal procedural codes. The agreement states that this will be Dutch law, and that the Dutch court will decide," she said.

According to Zerkal, the procedure for convicting those responsible for the crash of MH17 will be a "challenge" for the Ukrainian and Dutch judicial systems.

"The Dutch had fears of an absentee conviction, because we cannot surrender our citizens, we can only transfer them for the duration of the trial process or provide video communication," she said.

The Boeing 777 aircraft carrying out the flight MH17 (Amsterdam - Kuala Lumpur) crashed on July 17, 2014 near Torez, located in the Donetsk region. All 298 people who were on board were killed. 193 of them were citizens of the Netherlands.
On July 8, 2015, the Malaysian delegation to the UN circulated a draft resolution of the UN Security Council with a demand to form an international tribunal for an independent investigation into the case of the shot-down Boeing. However, Russia blocked the adoption of the resolution.

On September 28, 2016 in the Netherlands, an international investigation team made up of representatives of the Netherlands, Malaysia, Belgium, Australia and Ukraine, announced the interim results of the investigation. According to the findings of the commission, the MH17 flight was shot down by a Buk missile system , brought from Russia to the territory controlled by pro-Russian seperatists.

  MH17, The Netherlands

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