Australian law firm LHD Lawyers co-associate Jerry Skinner, who
also represented the Lockerbie bombing families, has filed a compensation
claim in the European Court of Human Rights.
The legal action
seeks $10m (£7m) in compensation per passenger, Australian media reported.
The suit, filed
on 9 May, names the Russian Federation and Mr Putin as respondents.
MH17 came down
in pro-Russian rebel-held territory on 17 July 2014, killing all 298 people on
board, including 28 Australians.
It was en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam at the time.
Fairfax media
reported that 33 next of kin of victims from Australia, New Zealand and
Malaysia are being represented by the firm.
The Dutch Safety
Board concluded in its final report late last year that the aircraft was shot
down by a Russian-made missile.
The board pieced
together the wreckage of the plane and determined that it must have been hit by
a Buk surface-to-air weapon, which is only made by state-controlled Russian
firm Almaz-Antey.
The board was
not empowered to address questions of responsibility, so did not point the
finger at any group or party for launching the missile.
Fighting was
raging in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian
government forces when the crash occurred.
Many Western
experts and governments blamed the rebels but Russia disputed the Dutch board's
findings, calling for an investigation to be carried out by the United Nations.
Kremlin officials said if the plane was downed by a missile, it
must have been launched by Ukrainian government forces, claiming Moscow no
longer uses the model of Buk which was said to have hit the plane.
An Australian
coroner ruled that six Australians who died in the MH17 plane crash were
victims of a "gross mass murder".
Mr Skinner told
News Corp the suit they filed was more than 3,500 pages in length.
"We're all
sitting with our fingers crossed - there are some legal determinations they
will have to make," he said.
"We didn’t
go to Russia and file suit in Moscow because it’s absolute nonsense to think we
could have a realistic chance of success.
"We plead
futility, we plead danger and we plead their lack of co-operation."
