Dutch court convicts three over downing of Malaysian flight MH17

A Dutch court has convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian separatist of the murders of 298 people who died in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine.

Presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis said evidence presented by prosecutors at a trial that lasted more than two years proved that the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was brought down by a Buk missile fired by pro-moscow Ukrainian fighters on July 17 2014.

One Russian was acquitted because of a lack of evidence. The three convicted were sentenced to life imprisonment. Against the geopolitical upheaval caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the court also held that Moscow had overall control of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine, from where it said the attack was launched.

None of the defendants appeared for the trial that began in March 2020 and if they are convicted, it is unlikely they will serve any sentence any time soon.

The prosecution had sought life sentences for all four. Prosecutors and the suspects have two weeks to file an appeal.

Judge Steenhuis opened yesterday’s hearing and said "the court takes the view that the

MH17 was brought down by a Buk missile" launched from an agricultural field in eastern Ukraine.

"The truth on the table – that is the most important thing," said Anton Kotte, who lost his son, daughter-in-law and six-year-old grandson when MH17 was shot down. He said the hearing was a "D-day" for relatives.

Robbert van Heijningen, whose brother, sister-in-law and nephew were killed, called the downing "an act of barbarism" that he could never put behind him, regardless of the verdict.

"I call it a stone in my heart, and stones... don't disappear," he said.

The Hague District Court sat at a high-security courtroom at Schiphol Airport.

Hundreds of family members of people killed had travelled to hear the verdict, bringing them back to the airport their loved ones left on the fateful day MH17 was shot down.

Dutch prosecutors said the missile launcher came from the 53rd Anti-aircraft Missile Brigade, a unit of the Russian armed forces based in the Russian city of Kursk and was driven back there after MH17 was shot down.

The suspects are not accused of firing the missile but of working together to get it to the field where it was fired. They are accused of bringing down the plane and the murder of all those on board.

The most senior defendant convicted is Igor Girkin, a 51-year-old former colonel in Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB.

At the time of the downing, he was defence minister and commander of the armed forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic – the region where the plane was shot down. Girkin is reportedly involved in Russia's war on Ukraine.

Also convicted were Girkin's subordinates, Sergey Dubinskiy and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian who prosecutors say was commander of a prorussia rebel combat unit.

Oleg Pulatov was acquitted.