President of the court Steenhuis (2ndL) talks prior to verdict within the trial of 4 men prosecuted for his or her involvement within the MH17 downing case, in Badhoevedorp on November 17, 2022.
John Thys | AFP | Getty Images
A Dutch court on Thursday convicted three men of murder for his or her role in shooting down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet with a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard the aircraft because it flew over a separatist-controlled region of eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The convictions, together with the life sentences handed to the 2 Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian who were tried in absentia, were seen as directing the blame for the jet’s downing at the federal government of Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite the fact that the Kremlin has all the time denied any connection to it.
The trial, held in a courtroom near Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport where Flight MH17 took off for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, put the Kremlin’s involvement in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine at the guts of the case.
Against the geopolitical upheaval brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this 12 months, the court held that Moscow in 2014 had overall control of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, the separatist area where the missile was launched.
Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said evidence presented by prosecutors within the trial — which lasted greater than two years — proved that the Boeing 777 was brought down by a Buk missile fired by pro-Moscow Ukrainian fighters on July 17, 2014. The crash scattered wreckage and bodies over farmland and fields of sunflowers.
The 298 passengers and crew killed within the downing got here from greater than a dozen countries, although nearly 200 were Dutch residents.
As relatives of the victims blinked away tears, Steenhuis described their torment of getting to attend for the stays of their family members to be returned to them.
“A chunk of bone from a hand. A chunk of leg or a foot. In two cases, no parts of a loved one returned,” he said.
Russians Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and Ukrainian separatist Leonid Kharchenko, who all remain at large, were convicted for his or her role in bringing the Buk missile system from a Russian military base into Ukraine and putting it into position for its launch.
Russian Oleg Pulatov, the one suspect represented by defense lawyers on the trial, was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Prosecutors said the convicted men have two weeks to file an appeal.
The court awarded damages to the families of greater than 16 million euros ($16.5 million) but it surely is unclear who would pay that sum.
Relatives of the victims welcomed the decision despite the fact that it’s unlikely that any of the three convicted men will serve their sentences.
“This is an element of justice for us. It just isn’t the entire thing yet, but it surely is a very good start,” said Seline Frederiksz-Hoogzand, who lost her son Bryce and his girlfriend Daisy. “Regardless that no one will go to prison, justice has been done.”
“The reality on the table — that’s crucial thing,” said Anton Kotte, who lost his son, daughter-in-law and his 6-year-old grandson when MH17 was shot down. He called the hearing a “D-Day” for relatives.
For the families, the ordeal of attending the trial was compounded by the incontrovertible fact that it was held near the airport where their family members launched into the fateful flight. Outside the court, planes may very well be heard taking off and landing nearby on a chilly, gray day.
Prosecutors focused their case on the circumstances behind the downing of the plane, saying that from mid-May 2014, the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic “was actually controlled from the Russian Federation.”
Three hours before MH17 was downed, Associated Press reporters in Ukraine saw a Buk system with 4 missiles go through the rebel-held town of Snizhne near where the plane was downed.
Several families of victims were relieved the court pointed to Russia’s involvement.
“With out a shadow of a doubt, they’re fully responsible, up until the Kremlin,” said Peter Langstraat, a lawyer representing one in every of the families. “You can not move this heavy military material without the consent of any individual high up within the military hierarchy. What does it mean? Near or within the Kremlin.”
Marieke de Hoon, an assistant professor of international criminal law on the University of Amsterdam, said the court’s findings may very well be utilized in other proceedings by Ukraine and the Netherlands in search of to carry Moscow responsible.
“Today the court said that indeed from mid-May 2014, this was a world armed conflict, meaning Russia was a celebration on this conflict,” she said, adding that the court “has a high authoritative value.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the decision was an important first step in assigning responsibility for the crime but added that more prosecutions and convictions were needed.
“It’s a very important decision within the court. … (But) it’s needed that those that ordered it also find themselves within the dock, because impunity results in latest crimes,” he tweeted.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the decision as “a solid step towards justice,” he said more work lies ahead to carry those responsible to account.
The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the court of bowing to pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors and the news media.
“There isn’t any must speak about objectivity and impartiality in such conditions,” it said in a press release.
There had been fears the huge evidence would not necessarily result in convictions. Steenhuis, nevertheless, cited details comparable to where the Buk was fired from, the burns it left on a field in rebel-held territory, and the way it moved around eastern Ukraine. He also delved into the defendants’ roles.
“There isn’t any reasonable doubt possible,” he added, dismissing defense arguments that something else might need happened to the plane.
And even when the downing involved a military miscalculation, Steenhuis said “such an error didn’t change the intent.”
Probably the most senior defendant was Girkin, a 51-year-old former colonel within the Russian Federal Security Service or FSB. On the time of the downing, he was defense minister and commander of the armed forces of the breakaway Donetsk region and now’s involved within the Ukraine war.
Dubinskiy, 60, was a former officer within the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU, and one in every of Girkin’s deputies in 2014. Like Girkin, he was in regular contact with Russian officials in 2014 and was also head of intelligence within the breakaway Donetsk region.
Kharchenko was described because the commander of a pro-Russian rebel combat unit who took orders directly from Dubinskiy.
Pulatov is a 56-year-old former officer within the special units of the GRU who was a deputy to Dubinskiy on the time MH17 was shot down.
In a video played in court, Pulatov insisted he was innocent and said: “What matters to me is that the reality is revealed. It is vital for me that my country just isn’t blamed for this tragedy.”