Liow Tiong Lai said about 100 suspects had been identified as being involved in shooting down the plane.
“We will use the International Court in Netherlands to prosecute those responsible.
“It will take time because each one of them will be called in to give their statements,” he said when wrapping up his ministry’s 2017 Budget debate.
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), comprising Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine, is working together on the criminal investigation into the crash, he added.
The flight was shot down on July 17, 2014 by a BUK missile from the 9M38-series.
All 283 passengers and 15 crew on board, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, were killed.
According to JIT, there was evidence the launch location was an agricultural field near Pervomaisky. At the time, it was under the control of pro-Russian fighters.
The JIT had also said it had sufficient radar data, both from Russia and Ukraine, which provided a full picture of the airspace over eastern Ukraine.
It showed that at the time of the crash, no other airplanes were in the vicinity. As such, they could not have shot down flight MH17.
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