MH17: Families of British victims to sue Putin
A London law firm is preparing to sue Russian leader Vladimir Putin over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
McCue & Partners has taken on the case on behalf of relatives of the British passengers who died when the aircraft was shot down.
Ten Britons were among the 298 passengers and crew who perished when the flights, which was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed in Ukraine.
Their families are due to meet UK Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street later today. Barry Sweeney, the father of one of the victims Liam Sweeney, told the BBC he would ask for Cameron’s help in repatriating the bodies of the British victims.
Fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainaina troops in the area where the plane came down has prevented a Dutch-led international group of 49 investigors from reached the crash site and some bodies have yet to be recovered.
Officials have been negotiating for days to allow officers from Holland and Australia to access the site, said the Guardian, in order to begin their investigations into the crash.
It is now widely accepted pro-Russian separatists fired at the plane, after mistaking it for a Ukrainian military aircraft. Ukrainian officials say evidence from the ‘black box’ flight recorders show the plane was downed by a missile.
They said MH17 suffered an explosive loss of pressure after it was punctured by shrapnel from a missile. However, British experts who are analysing information from the flight recorders have not yet released an official statement
A spokesman for McCue & Partners told the Sunday Telegraph: "There has been talk of civil suits against Malaysia Airlines, but those immediately responsible are not only the separatists who are alleged to have fired the rocket at Flight MH17, causing the death of hundreds of innocent victims, but those, be they states, individuals or other entities, who provided them with financial and material support and the means to do so.
"Our team is presently liaising and working with partners in Ukraine and the US on whether, apart from civil suits against the airline, legal action can be brought against the perpetrators on the victims’ behalf."
Any case is likely to go through the US courts.
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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