The findings challenge Russia's suggestion that Malaysia Airlines flight 17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in July 2014, was brought down by the Ukrainian military. All 298 people on board, most of them Dutch citizens, were killed.
The prosecutors cannot file charges but victims' relatives have been seeking details of who shot the plane down in the hope it might lead eventually to prosecutions. The downing or the airliner led to a sharp rise in East-West tensions.
"The investigators made it very clear that what they’ve made public to us is really only the tip of the iceberg because they need to keep a lot of this material in reserved for what they hope will be a criminal investigation, possibly they will bring charges of murder, and possibly even charges of war crimes," said Al Jazeera’s Naeve Barker, reporting from the Dutch city of Nieuwegein where report was released.
The Buk missile system used to shoot down the plane fired one missile from the village of Pervomaysk and was later returned to Russia, said the prosecutors, from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine.
They told a news conference in Nieuwegein that the investigative team had identified 100 people who were described as being of interest to them, but had not yet been formally identified individual suspects.
It was not clear whether an order had been given for fighters to launch the missile or whether they had acted independently, the prosecutors said.
“Based on results of the criminal investigation it may be concluded that MH17 was shot down on 17 July 2014 by a 9M38 series missile launched by a Buk system, which was brought in from the territory of the Russian Federation, and after the launch, was subsequently returned to the Russian Federation territory," said Wilbert Paulissen, lead detective with the Dutch Police.
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