Representatives of 12 countries discuss progress in MH17 crash probe

Representatives of the 12 countries related to the MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine have discussed in the Hague the course of the criminal investigation into the tragedy, Eurojust, the European Union’s judicial cooperation unit, said on Saturday.

"The participants in the meeting discussed the progress made in the identification of the victims of the crash and the progress in the criminal investigation," the organization said.

Taking part in the consultations were public prosecutors and investigators from the Netherlands, Australia, Ukraine, Belgium and Malaysia - the countries that formed a joint investigation team in 2014.

In addition to that, representatives of the U.K., Germany, the Philippines, Canada, New Zealand, Indonesia and the United States, that is, the countries whose citizens perished in the tragedy attended the meeting, Eurojust said.

This is the third such meeting. The first one took place on July 28, 2014, and the second - on December 4, 2014.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down on July 16 last year in the east of Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The tragedy claimed the lives of all 283 passengers and 15 crew members.