NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that a Netherlands court ruling on the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in July 2014 «marks an important day for justice and accountability.»
In a message on social networks, Stoltenberg stressed that the ruling is «important for justice and accountability» and stressed that «there can be no impunity for these crimes.»
«My thoughts are with the victims and the loved ones of the 298 innocent victims,» the former Norwegian prime minister has recalled on the judgment that the plane was hit by a Russian-made ‘Buk’ missile that would have been launched from a territory located in Pervomaisk, in the Lugansk region.
The court has singled out Russian defendants Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky, as well as Ukrainian Leonid Jarchenko, as responsible for the attack and sentenced them to life imprisonment. A fourth defendant was acquitted as it could not be proven that he gave orders to fire the missile.
