TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Dutch court finds three defendants guilty of shooting down Malaysia Airlines plane MH17 over the skies of Ukraine in 2014 during a trial in The Hague, Thursday, November 17, 2022.
two citizens Russia and a Ukrainian national, who was tried in absentia, received a life sentence for blowing up and crashing the plane, killing all 298 passengers and crew.
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The three are former Russian intelligence agents Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, as well as Leonid Kharchenko, leader of Ukraine’s separatists. The Dutch court also said Russia had “full control” of separatist forces in eastern Ukraine at the time the plane was shot down.
Russia immediately overturned the decision in what a Dutch court called “outrageous”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the trial was under unprecedented pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors and media to impose a politically motivated verdict.
“The trial in the Netherlands is likely to be one of the most scandalous in the history of legal proceedings,” he said in a statement. Moscow has repeatedly denied responsibility for the plane crash.
Separately, a senior Russian politician told the Tass news agency that Moscow would not extradite Girkin and Dubinskiy.
Andrei Klishas, a member of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said Cup that the court’s decision will have no legal consequences.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said prosecutors dismissed all evidence that the missile could have been launched by Ukrainian forces from territory controlled by Kyiv.
“We deeply regret that The Hague District Court has neglected the principle of impartial justice in the name of the current political situation,” he said.
Next: Plane shot down as pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists revolt
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