Crash of flight MH17 in 2014: Russia denounces a “political” and “scandalous” verdict

Russia on Thursday denounced a “political” decision after a Dutch court convicted three men, including two Russians, for shooting down a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine in 2014.

“The course and outcome of the legal proceedings indicate that (the decision) is based on a political order,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

A Dutch court on Thursday sentenced three men to life in prison and acquitted another for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, a trial that ended amid Moscow’s ongoing military offensive against Kyiv.

All 298 passengers and crew on the plane were killed when the Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur plane was hit over eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists, what prosecutors said was a Moscow-supplied missile.

convictions in absentia

The Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and the Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko were found guilty of murder and having participated in the destruction of the plane, the Russian Oleg Poulatov being acquitted.

The three men were convicted in absentia, refusing to attend the trial, which lasted two and a half years.

Russia categorically rejects any responsibility for the destruction of the plane and accuses the Dutch court of having ignored elements that exonerated the three convicted defendants in its trial.

“Throughout the entire process, the court found itself under unprecedented pressure from Dutch politicians, representatives of the prosecution and the media, who imposed a politically motivated outcome on the trial,” denounced Russian diplomacy.

This trial “has every chance of becoming one of the most scandalous in the history of judicial processes, with its procession of mania, inconsistencies and dubious arguments of the prosecution that, however, served as the basis for the verdict,” he added. .

“We deeply regret that (the court) has neglected the principles of impartial justice to serve the current political situation, thus dealing a heavy blow to the reputation of the entire Dutch judicial system,” he said, repeating.