Azerbaijan to file international lawsuits against Russia over downed plane, Aliyev says
Azerbaijan is preparing to submit documents to international courts over the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft, President Ilham Aliyev said on July 19, according to local outlet Minval.
An Embraer 190AR plane operated by Azarbaijan Airlines crashed in Kazakhstan on Dec. 25, after coming under fire over Grozny, Chechnya. Thirty-eight people were killed.
Azerbaijani authorities laid blame on Russia, with an investigation pointing to a Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system mistakenly targeting the plane amid a reported Ukrainian drone attack.
Aliyev said that despite seven months having passed since the incident, Azerbaijan has yet to receive a clear response from the Russian authorities.
Moscow continues to reply to formal inquiries from the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General by saying that the investigation is still ongoing, the Minval reported.
"We understand that this may take time. In the Malaysian airline Boeing case, it took more than ten years. We are ready to wait ten years, but justice must be done," Aliyev said.
Earlier this July, the European Court of Human Rights found Russia responsible for the downing of Flight MH17, a Malaysian airliner shot down by Russian-controlled forces over Ukraine in July 2014.
Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport en-route to Kuala Lumpur International Airport on July 17, 2014. Three hours into the flight, Boeing 777 was shot down by Russian militants using a Buk surface-to-air missile over Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast. All 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board, among them 196 Dutch citizens, were killed.
The crash of the Azerbaijani aircraft led to a public clash between Azerbaijan and Russia, otherwise close politically and economically. Previously, Aliyev accused Moscow of suppressing evidence and criticized his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for not openly admitting guilt.
Putin offered condolences for the incident, but stopped short of admitting Russian responsibility.
