Twenty four M’sians sue Putin over MH17

KUALA LUMPUR: Thirty three next of kin of some of the 298 people on board downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 are blaming President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation, in a suit filed at the European Court of Human Rights, for the tragedy and their plight.

The next of kin include eight from Australia, one from New Zealand and the remainder 24 from Malaysia.

They are seeking USD10 million per passenger, according to court documents sighted by the Sydney Morning Herald. Apparently, this makes it among the largest payouts in the history of aviation disasters.

The claim served by LHD Lawyers, a Sydney legal firm, at the European Human Rights Court on May 9, largely blames the Russians for MH17 being shot down over a conflict zone in eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014. US-based co-signatory on the claim application, Jerry Skinner, a co-associate of LHD Lawyers, has a reputation for achieving large compensation awards for his clients. He helped negotiate USD10 million in compensation from Libya for each family who lost loved ones in the Lockerbie disaster.

The claim pointed out that Russia offered “a USD50 million reward in connection with the terrorist downing of an Egyptian Airline that killed a large number of Russian citizens”.

This shows, the claim argues, that Russia recognises an attack on a passenger plane is an egregious act. “Similarly, this Court to deter the Russian Federation from violating the sanctity of passenger flights, should order the Federation to pay each applicant USD10 million,” argued Skinner.

The documents allege that the Russian Federation has worked to keep its involvement hidden. It has failed to conduct an internal investigation, refused to participate in the cockpit reconstruction and its “Pawn Storm” cyber warfare unit hacked into the Dutch Safety Board investigative website, the documents allege.

Skinner told Fairfax Media in Sydney that the European Court could make a determination of “just satisfaction” that the respondent(s) is accountable for the acts that occurred. It could then move to the International Court of Arbitration to put a figure on the award.

“Hopefully they (the Russian Federation) will want to talk about it before we get to moving from one court to arbitration,” he said.

The lawyer reiterated that Putin lost a plane himself over Sinai — a Metrojet Airbus 321 carrying Russian holidaymakers in October 2015 — and he offered USD50 million to anybody who would give him evidence to find anything.

“Having done all this in public, I am afraid the idea is to get him to stand up to his word and pay for his own mistakes, which are very similar to what happened to his people,” said Skinner.

“My clients want accountability for the deed. They want enough money to reflect that the Russians take this seriously and serve as a deterrent.”

He disclosed that he had encouraged the Russians to contact him to discuss how much money. “I have heard nothing from Russia, from their embassy or from the contact points that we established, to indicate that they are willing to talk about negotiating,” he lamented. “We have now seen a rash of ‘let’s take it out on the airlines’ because everybody thinks they are easier targets.”

The issue over MH17 was whether the Russians acknowledge accountability, he stressed. “This is about justice and accountability, not about the biggest sum of money you can get.”

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