SCHIPHOL, NETHERLANDS (AP) – A Dutch court on Thursday convicted three men of murder for their role in shooting down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet with a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard the aircraft as it flew over a separatist-controlled region of eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The convictions, along with the life sentences handed to the two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian who were tried in absentia, were seen as directing the blame for the jet’s downing at the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin, even though the Kremlin has always 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 heart of the case.
Against the geopolitical upheaval caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year, 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 in the trial – which lasted more 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.
PHOTO: AP
The 298 passengers and crew killed in the downing came from more than a dozen countries, although nearly 200 were Dutch citizens.
As relatives of the victims blinked away tears, Steenhuis described their torment of having to wait for the remains of their loved ones to be returned to them.
“A piece of bone from a hand. A piece 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 their 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 only suspect represented by defence lawyers at 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 more than USD16.5 million but it is unclear who would pay that sum.
Relatives of the victims welcomed the verdict even though it is unlikely that any of the three convicted men will serve their sentences.
“This is part of justice for us. It is not the whole thing yet, but it is a good start,” said Seline Frederiksz-Hoogzand, who lost her son Bryce and his girlfriend Daisy. “Even though nobody will go to prison, justice has been done.”
“The truth on the table – that is the most important thing,” said Anton Kotte, who lost his son, daughter-in-law and his six-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 fact that it was held near the airport where their loved ones embarked on the fateful flight. Outside the court, planes could be heard taking off and landing on a cold, grey day.
Prosecutors focussed 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 Russia”.
Three hours before MH17 was downed, Associated Press reporters in Ukraine saw a Buk system with four missiles pass 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.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, they are fully responsible, up until the Kremlin,” said lawyer representing one of the families Peter Langstraat. “You cannot move this heavy military material without the consent of somebody high up in the military hierarchy. What does it mean? Close to or in the Kremlin.”
Assistant professor of international criminal law at the University of Amsterdam Marieke de Hoon said the court’s findings could be used in other proceedings by Ukraine and the Netherlands seeking to hold Moscow responsible. “Today the court said that indeed from mid-May 2014, this was an international armed conflict, meaning Russia was a party in this conflict,” she said, adding that the court “has a high authoritative value”.
