A court in the Netherlands on Thursday found guilty three of the four defendants in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in July 2014 and confirmed that the plane was hit by a Russian-made ‘Buk’ missile that was allegedly launched from a territory located in Pervomaisk in the Lugansk region.
The court has affirmed that Russian defendants Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky, as well as Ukrainian Leonid Jarchenko, are guilty of the murder of 298 people by participating in the supply, deployment and removal of the ‘Buk’ system used to shoot down the aircraft.
The fourth suspect, Oleg Pulatov, a Russian citizen, has been acquitted as it could not be proved that he gave orders to fire the missile, according to the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.
In addition, the judges have explained that they will have to compensate the victims’ families. «Suffering cannot be expressed in money. 290 people filed claims for damages of between 40,000 and 50,000 euros. Girkin, Dubinsky and Jarchenko are sentenced to pay damages of more than 16 million euros,» they pointed out. The prosecution had asked for life sentences for the four men.
Previously, Thursdays had confirmed that the missile that hit the aircraft was a ‘Buk’ that was launched from a farm and left 283 passengers and fifteen crew members dead, as explained by Judge Hendrik Steenhuis.
The judges have thus concluded that there is ample evidence to support the hypothesis that the missile was Russian and was launched from that territory, which was then under the control of pro-Russian forces.
Although the Netherlands and Australia have admitted that «holding a country responsible is a complex legal process», they do hold Moscow responsible for the incident because of the «role» it played. However, the authorities have always denied any link to the Malaysia Airlines plane tragedy.
