The families of 737 MAX crash victims have said the U.S. Justice Department violated their rights when it struck a deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing in January.
Relatives filed a motion on Thursday arguing the United States government 'lied and violated their rights through a secret process' by allowing Boeing to escape criminal charges.
As part of the deferred prosecution deal, Boeing test pilot Mark Forkner is the only person to be criminally charged in the two disastrous 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019.
Now the families of two victims have asked a U.S. judge to declare that the order violated victims´ families rights to rescind Boeing's immunity from criminal prosecution that was part of the $2.5 billion agreement.
The families of 737 MAX crash victims have said the U.S. Justice Department violated their rights when it struck a deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing in January. Pictured: Family members hold photos of Ethiopian 302 victims during a Congressional hearing
People walk past a part of the wreckage at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 10, 2019
The motion was brought by the families of Mick Ryan (left) and Jared Babu Mwazo (right), who both perished in the Ethiopian Flight 302 crash
'Boeing and the Government deliberately excluded those who were most concerned with the negotiations: the families of the victims,' said attorney Paul G. Cassell, a former federal judge who is currently a professor of law at the University of Utah and considered one of the nation's leading experts on crime victims' rights.
'If the Government is going to craft a DPA for a serious felony crime, including one that gives a corporation like Boeing immunity, it cannot do so secretly. In concealing its negotiations from Boeing's victims, the Government plainly violated the Crime Victims' Rights Act – a broad bill of rights protecting victims of federal crimes.'
The motion was brought by the families of Mick Ryan and Jared Babu Mwazo, who both perished in the Ethiopian Flight 302 crash.
The victims' families are seeking an order for the government to confer with them and provide evidence related to Boeing's crimes and require Boeing to appear for a public arraignment where the victims can be heard.
They also ask the court to exercise its supervisory powers over the DPA which may include rescinding the immunity provision.
'If the U.S. Justice Department had advised us of our right to confer with it about the crimes associated with the crash, we would have urged the Department to hold Boeing accountable to the full extent of U.S. criminal law,' said Mick Ryan's widow Naoise Connolly Ryan in a statement to DailyMail.com.
