September, 20 2017 in the margins of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and The Netherlands have signed the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Australia, the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Government of Malaysia, the Government of the Netherlands and the Government of Ukraine regarding political support for prosecuting the perpetrators of the downing of flight MH17 on 17 July 2014.

This is yet another component of the mechanism of prosecuting those responsible for the disaster after the coordinated decision of the JIT countries was announced on July, 5 2017. The decision envisages the prosecution to be carried out under the Dutch national judicial system.

The MoU aims at providing a coordinated position among the JIT countries as well as securing all support available from the grieving nations and international partners to assist The Netherlands in holding the perpetrators accountable.

The legal basis for the implementation of the decision to transfer the criminal proceedings from Ukraine to The Netherlands is the Agreement between Ukraine and the Kingdom of the Netherlands on international legal cooperation regarding crimes connected with the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on 17 July 2014 signed on July 7 2017.

It is worth to remind that in July 2015 Russian Federation vetoed the UNSC draft resolution on establishing international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for downing MH17.