Three convicted of murder for 2014 downing of passenger jet over Ukraine

A Dutch court on Thursday convicted two Russians and one pro-Moscow Ukrainian separatist of murder for the deadly 2014 downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine, sentencing all three to life in prison.  

The court found that “only the highest appropriate prison sentence would be appropriate” for former Russian intelligence agents Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy and Ukrainian separatist Leonid Kharchenko for the murders of 298 people onboard who died in the downing of Flight MH17. 

The downing of the Boeing 777 — which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was brought down by a Russian Buk missile on July 17, 2014 — caused such “devastating consequences” that “a limited period of imprisonment will not suffice,” a press release from the Hague District Court stated. 

Though the three defendants did not fire the missile at the plane, they were found to have helped move the weapon from Russia into Ukraine. 

None of the three attended or took part in the trial in a courtroom at the Schiphol Judicial Complex in Badhoevedorp, the Netherlands, and were tried in absentia. They are believed to be in Russia and extradition is unlikely.

A fourth suspect, Russian Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted. 

The plane’s downing, which killed 15 crew members and 283 passengers from 17 countries, happened over territory held by rebels in eastern Ukraine early in the conflict between pro-Moscow separatists and Ukrainian forces. 

The incident drew international condemnation and the world watched in horror as images emerged of smoldering plane wreckage and bodies and luggage strewn across fields.  

“Only the most severe punishment is fitting to retaliate for what the suspects have done, which has caused so much suffering to so many victims and so many surviving relatives,” Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis read in a summary of the ruling, Reuters reported. 

The sentencing marks the end of a trial that lasted more than two years and was attended by hundreds of family members of those killed in the downing, according to The Associated Press. 

Although there wasn’t enough evidence to determine who launched the Buk missile, the court found that it had been fired from a field near the village of Pervomaiskyi, an area Moscow had control over in 2014. 

It was also found that those who fired the missile likely mistook the passenger jet for a military aircraft, but “such an error did not change the intent,” Steenhuis said, according to the AP. 

The Hague District Court also awarded the families of MH17 victims damages exceeding $16.5 million  

After the court’s verdict and sentencing, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the moment was “an important day for justice and accountability.” 

“There can be no impunity for such crimes. My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the 298 innocent victims,” Stoltenberg tweeted. 

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted that the MH17 sentencings were an important first step in holding those accountable for the crime but pressed for “masterminds” to also face judgement.  

“Important court decision in The Hague,” Zelensky wrote. “Holding to account masterminds is crucial too, as the feeling of impunity leads to new crimes. We must dispel this illusion. Punishment for all [Russia’s] atrocities then & now is inevitable.”