A fistful of justice
2 Russians, Ukrainian tried in absentia for missile killing 298
Ria van der Steen, who lost her father and stepmother in 2014 when a Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down over Ukraine with a Russian missile, killing all 298 people aboard, celebrates Thursday in Schiphol, Netherlands, after a Dutch court convicted three men of murder for their role in the attack. The suspects were tried in absentia. More photos at arkansasonline.com/1118mh17/.
SCHIPHOL, Netherlands — 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-toair 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.
As relatives of the victims blinked away tears, Steenhuis described their torment of having to wait for the remains of their loved ones to be returned to them.
“A piece of bone from a hand. A piece of leg or a foot. In two cases, no parts of a loved one returned,” he said.
Russians Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and Ukrainian separatist Leonid Kharchenko, who all remain at large, were convicted for their role in bringing the Buk missile system from a Russian military base into Ukraine and putting it into position for its launch.
Russian Oleg Pulatov, the only suspect represented by defense lawyers at the trial, was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Prosecutors said the convicted men have two weeks to file an appeal.
The court awarded damages to the families of more than $16.5 million but it is unclear who would pay that sum.
Relatives of the victims welcomed the verdict even though it is unlikely that any of the three convicted men will serve their sentences.
“This is part of justice for us. It is not the whole thing yet, but it is a good start,” said Seline Frederiksz-Hoogzand, who lost her son Bryce and his girlfriend Daisy. “Even though nobody will go to prison, justice has been done.”
“The truth on the table — that is the most important thing,” said Anton Kotte, who lost his son, daughter-in-law and his 6-year-old grandson when MH17 was shot down. He called the hearing a “D-Day” for relatives.
For the families, the ordeal of attending the trial was compounded by the fact that it was held near the airport where their loved ones embarked on the fateful flight. Outside the court, planes could be heard taking off and landing nearby on a cold, gray day.
Prosecutors focused their case on the circumstances behind the downing of the plane, saying that from mid-May 2014, the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic “was actually controlled from the Russian Federation.” Three hours before MH17 was downed, Associated Press reporters in Ukraine saw a Buk system with four missiles pass through the rebel-held town of Snizhne near where the plane was downed.
Several families of victims were relieved the court pointed to Russia’s involvement.
There had been fears the massive evidence wouldn’t necessarily lead to convictions. Steenhuis, however, cited details such as where the Buk was fired from, the burns it left on a field in rebel-held territory, and how it moved around eastern Ukraine. He also delved into the defendants’ roles.
“There is no reasonable doubt possible,” he added, dismissing defense arguments that something else might have happened to the plane.
And even if the downing involved a military miscalculation, Steenhuis said “such an error did not change the intent.”