International team suspends MH17 investigation

People walk amongst the debris at the crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Grabovo, Ukraine, on July 17 2014 (Dmitry Lovetsky/AP)

An international team has suspended its criminal probe into the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.

It comes nearly three months after a Dutch court convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian rebel for their roles in shooting down the Boeing 777 and killing all 298 people on board on July 17 2014.

One Russian was acquitted by the court.

None of the suspects appeared for the trial and it is unclear if the three who were found guilty of multiple murders will ever serve their sentences.

The convictions and the court’s finding that the surface-to-air Buk missile which blew the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur flight out of the sky came from a Russian military base were seen as a clear indication that Moscow had a role in the tragedy.

10 British nationals killed

Russia has always denied involvement.

The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the court in November of bowing to pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors and the news media.

But the November convictions held that Moscow was in overall control in 2014 over the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, the separatist area of eastern Ukraine where the missile was launched from.

The Buk missile system came from the Russian military’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, based in the city of Kursk.

The Joint Investigation Team is made up of experts from the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine.

Most of the victims were Dutch. Ten were British nationals.

“The indications for close ties between the leadership of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Russian government officials raises questions about their involvement in the deployment” of the missile, the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service said on its website, citing intercepted phone calls between leaders of the breakaway region and “high-ranking Russian government officials held in the summer of 2014″.

As well as the criminal trial that was held in the Netherlands, the Dutch and Ukrainian governments are suing Russia at the European Court of Human Rights over its alleged role in the downing of MH17.