A Dutch court in The Hague on Thursday sentenced two Russians and a pro-Moscow separatist to life in prison for the murder of 298 people who died in the 2014 Malaysia Airlines plane crash over Ukraine.
“The court condemns the life imprisonment” of Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, found guilty of murder and participation in the destruction of the aircraft, said chairman Hendrik Steenhuis, who acquitted another Russian citizen for lack of prove.
Steenhuis indicated that evidence presented by the prosecution in a trial that has lasted more than two years shows that the Boeing 777, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was hit on July 17 by a ‘Buk’ missile that was fired by pro-Moscow Ukrainian fighters. , 2014.
The crash scattered debris and bodies across farmland and sunflower fields in Ukraine.
The court also ruled that Moscow had full control over the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, from which the attack was launched.
None of the defendants appeared at the trial, which began in March 2020, and despite their conviction, they have two weeks to appeal, although they are unlikely to serve a prison sentence.
In a first reaction on the social network Twitter to the decision of the administrative court in The Hague, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the “important decision” of the conviction of two Russian citizens and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian.
Important judgment of the court in The Hague. First sentences for the perpetrators of #MH17 take down. Holding masterminds to account is also crucial, as the sense of impunity leads to new crimes. We must dispel this illusion. Punishment for all the atrocities of RF then and now is inevitable.
– Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 17, 2022
“An important ruling by the court of The Hague. Punishment for all Russian atrocities – yesterday and today – will be inevitable”he added, while Kiev accused Moscow of “war crimes” in several Ukrainian regions occupied by the Russian army since late February.
“But that is necessary [todos] perpetrators end up in the dock as the sense of impunity leads to new crimes,” he lamented, asking to “dispel the illusion” that international justice would not find those guilty of “atrocities” in the current conflict with Russia or condemn.
For his part, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba praised the “deep joint efforts between Ukraine, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and Malaysia” during the investigation.
“Today’s verdict sends a message to Russia: no lie can help you escape justice,” Kuleba also wrote on Twitter.
Steenhuis opened Thursday’s hearing, stating that the court rules that “flight MH17 was downed by a ‘Buk’ missile” launched from an agricultural field in eastern Ukraine, emphasizing that it has yet to decide on the guilt or innocence of suspects in other lawsuits. Affairs.
Prior to the hearing, tensions were high among the victims’ families.
“The truth: this is the most important thing,” said Anton Kotte, who lost his son, daughter-in-law and six-year-old grandson when MH17 was shot down.
Robbert van Heijningen, who lost his brother, sister-in-law and cousin, regarded the incident as “an act of barbarism” that he could never forget, regardless of the verdict.
“There are stones in my heart and stones do not disappear,” argued Heijningen outside the court in The Hague, who has moved to highly secured facilities at Schiphol.
Hundreds of relatives of the fatal victims went to the scene to hear the verdict, at an airport where they took off in the plane that would later be shot down.
The Dutch prosecutor said the missile launcher in Ukraine belonged to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, a unit of the Russian armed forces stationed in the Russian city of Kursk, where it was fatally returned shortly after the shooting.
The suspects are not charged with firing the missile, but with collaborating to get the launcher to the field from which they opened fire, and are accused of shooting down the plane, killing everyone on board.
The convicted defendant with the largest relative is Igor Girkin, a 51-year-old former colonel of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, who was defense minister and commander of its own armed forces at the time of the incident. – declared region of the Donetsk People’s Republic, where the plane was shot down.
Girkin is currently involved in Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
Also convicted were Girkin’s subordinates, Sergey Dubinskiy and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian who prosecutors say was the commander of a pro-Russian rebel fighting unit and who followed orders directly from Dubinskiy.
Oleg Pulatov was the only one of the acquitted defendants and was represented at the trial by defense lawyers who accused the prosecution of having a “biased point of view” in basing the case on the conclusions of an international investigation into the incident, which other possible causes were ignored. .
In a video recording played in court, Pulatov insisted he was innocent.
“What interests me is that the truth is revealed. It is important to me that my country is not blamed for this tragedy,” he said, addressing the judges directly.
Source: DN
