Hague Court’s decision on MH17 case is first stage of big trial of Putin regime, says NSDC secretary
Oleksiy Danilov (Photo:NSDС)
The decision of the Hague Court in the case of the MH17 crash is just the first of many trials against Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s criminal regime, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Oleksiy Danilov wrote on Twitter on Nov. 18.
“We welcome the decision of the Hague Court in the case of the MH17 crash,” he tweeted.
“We consider this to be the first stage of a big trial against Putin’s criminal regime.”
At the same time, Danilov stressed that Ukrainians are not ready to wait for eight years for a sentence.
“The crimes of ruscism (Russian fascism) must be condemned at the same time as the crimes of fascism and communism,” he wrote.
The District Court of The Hague in The Netherlands on Nov. 17 sentenced three suspects in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 to life imprisonment.
Three of the suspects – Igor Girkin, Leonid Kharchenko and Sergey Dubinsky – were found guilty of 298 charges of murder, one for every passenger and crew member on the flight.
Another suspect in the case, Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted by the court, which decided that there was no evidence directly establishing Pulatov’s personal involvement in the crime.
Those found guilty must pay EUR 16 million in compensation to the relatives of the victims.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, a Boeing-777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down by the Russian military on July 17, 2014, over an occupied portion of the Donbas. There were no survivors among the 283 passengers and 15 crew members.
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was established in August 2014, which included Russian representatives. In July 2015, Russia blocked a UN Security Council proposal to create an international tribunal to investigate the downing of MH17.
In 2016, the JIT concluded that MH17 was downed by a Buk anti-aircraft missile system launched from near the city of Snizhne, Donetsk Oblast. Investigators say that the missile system was supplied and delivered to eastern Ukraine by Russia.
In early 2020, Dutch prosecutors charged four individuals in the MH17 case – Dubinsky, Girkin, Pulatov and Kharchenko.
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