Int'l investigation identifies 100 people linked to MH17 crash: Ukrainian prosecutor

The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which is investigating the downing of flight MH17, has identified about 100 people linked to the crash, Ukraine's First Deputy Prosecutor General Dmytro Storozhuk said Wednesday.

"Currently, we are unable to announce who is a suspect and who is a witness, because the role of each person is not established yet," Storozhuk told a media briefing.

The JIT, consisting of representatives of the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine, is establishing a witness protection program to carry out the questioning of those people, Storozhuk said.

The Ukrainian side supports the initiative to hold a judicial proceeding into the crash in the Netherlands, he said, explaining that the possible hearings in Ukraine's court could be perceived as biased by some.

"Any judicial consideration in Ukraine would be politicized and there would be constant accusations of bias, because Ukraine is a party to an armed conflict," Storozhuk said.

MH17 crashed in the conflict area in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, while flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 people on board died, most of them Dutch citizens.

In September this year, the JIT said that the aircraft was downed by a Buk missile, which was brought from Russia and fired from a region in eastern Ukraine controlled by independence-seeking insurgents.

Moscow has denied the allegations, saying that the plane was shot by a missile from the territory controlled by Ukrainian government troops.

The Russian Defense Ministry also accused Ukraine of hiding vital data on the crash and manipulating the investigation of the catastrophe. Endi