KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 — The case involving the downing of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in July last year should be tried in a Malaysian court.

The proposal was raised by Senior Fellow at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Dr Sufian Jusoh in an interview with Bernama.

“This is possible because Malaysia has the right to protect the rights of Malaysians who died in the tragedy, as well as their families, to ensure complete transparency in the investigation in this country,” he said.

According to him, the fact that the Boeing 777 national carrier is a state-owned airline reinforced the need for the incident that left 298 passengers and crew, including 43 Malaysians dead, to be investigated in Malaysia.

The Dutch Safety Board in its final report on the July 17, 2014 crash released last Tuesday, confirmed that Flight MH17 was shot down by a BUK surface-to-air missile fired from eastern Ukraine. — Bernama