Three convicted in 2014 downing of Malaysian jet over Ukraine
SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch court, on Thursday, convicted three men of murder for their role in shooting down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet with a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard the aircraft as it flew over a separatist-controlled region of eastern Ukraine, in 2014.
The convictions, along with the life sentences handed to the two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian who were tried in absentia, were seen as directing the blame for the jet’s downing at the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin, even though the Kremlin has always denied any connection to it.
The trial, held in a courtroom near Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport where Flight MH17 took off for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, put the Kremlin’s involvement in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine at the heart of the case.
Against the geopolitical upheaval caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this year, the court held that Moscow, in 2014, had overall control of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, the separatist area where the missile was launched.
Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said evidence presented by prosecutors in the trial — which lasted more than two years — proved that the Boeing 777 was brought down by a Buk missile fired by pro-Moscow Ukrainian fighters, on July 17, 2014. The crash scattered wreckage and bodies over farmland and fields of sunflowers.
The 298 passengers and crew killed in the downing came from more than a dozen countries, although nearly 200 were Dutch citizens.