Downed-jet justice ‘crucial’
Zelenskyy urges investigators to track down other perpetrators
Imposing these sentences cannot take away the pain and suffering, but there’s hope that today clarity has been provided about who is to blame. Judge Hendrik Steenhuis (left)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed that all Russian war crimes would be punished after a Dutch court sentenced three men to life in prison for shooting down a civilian airliner in 2014.
In the Hague yesterday, two Russians and one Ukrainian man were found guilty of murdering the 298 passengers and crew members of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
A fourth Russian man was acquitted following an eight-year quest for justice over one of the bloodiest incidents of Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine eight years ago.
Relatives welcomed the verdict but said more had to be done to bring others involved to justice.
The verdict was read out in front of a courtroom packed with family members of those killed in the incident.
Judge Hendrik Steenhuis told a courtroom: “The court calls the proven charges so severe that it holds that only the highest possible prison sentence would be appropriate.
“Imposing these sentences cannot take away the pain and suffering, but there’s hope that today clarity has been provided about who is to blame.”
The three were also ordered to pay at least €16 million ($26.9 million) in compensation to the victims’ families.
None of the accused were in court and Russia has refused to extradite them, meaning they are unlikely to be detained or imprisoned unless they travel abroad. The case was heard in a Dutch court because Russia vetoed creation of an international tribunal at the United Nations.
People from 10 countries, including two New Zealanders, were among the victims. Nearly 200 were Dutch citizens.
Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky, together with Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, were found guilty on charges of murder and causing the aircraft to crash.
Dubinsky, who has been linked to the Russian intelligence services, ordered Kharchenko to guard the Russian buk air defence system to the spot where it fired the fatal missile on July 17, 2014, the court found.
Girkin, a former officer in Russia’s FSB security service and the top separatist military commander in east Ukraine at the time, was found to have had “control over the use and deployment” of the launcher. He is now believed to be in Ukraine, fighting on the Russian side despite criticising the Kremlin’s handling of the war.
Oleg Pulatov, the only defendant to appoint defence counsel, was acquitted. Judges said he was fighting in the area but there was no evidence he contributed to the missile launch or had the authority to stop it.
Zelenskyy called the sentencings “important” but urged investigators to track down other perpetrators.
“Holding to account masterminds is crucial, too, as the feeling of impunity leads to new crimes. We must dispel this illusion. Punishment for all the Russian Federation’s atrocities then and now is inevitable,” he wrote on Twitter.
“The truth on the table — that is the most important thing,” said Anton Kotte, who lost his son, daughter-inlaw and his 6-year-old grandson when MH17 was shot down. He called the hearing a “D-Day” for relatives.
The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the court of bowing to pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors and the news media.
“There is no need to talk about objectivity and impartiality in such conditions,” it said in a statement.