NEW YORK, April 29 — Forensics experts have identified remains of 296 of the 298 people killed when a Malaysia Airlines jetliner was shot down in July over eastern Ukraine, the foreign minister of the Netherlands said yesterday.
The minister, Bert Koenders, whose country lost the most people among the nationalities on the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur flight, also reported progress on other aspects of the inquiry into the destruction of the jetliner, Flight MH17, which apparently was felled by a missile launched from eastern Ukraine.
NATO officials have said Russian-backed Ukrainian insurgents shot down the jetliner July 17 with a Russian-made missile. Russia has blamed Ukrainian forces.
Koenders said investigators expected to complete their report by October, adding that discussions had begun over how to prosecute any suspects.
“For us obviously, and for our colleagues in Malaysia, Ukraine and in other countries — the grieving nations, as they are sometimes called — it’s important that those people who are responsible for this are coming in front of a judge,” Koenders said. He spoke in an interview yesterday at the New York Times Building while in New York to attend a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty conference at the United Nations. — The New York Times
