© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A normal view of the courtroom the place the MH17 trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian is going down because it enters a brand new stage the place households of victims of the MH17 aircraft crash give testimony in Badhoevedorp, Netherlands, September 6, 2021. R
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A Dutch courtroom mentioned on Thursday that Malaysia Airways flight MH17 was shot down in 2014 by a Russian-made missile fired from a discipline in jap Ukraine and that Russia had general management of separatist forces on the time when the aircraft was shot down.
The courtroom is studying its ruling within the case of 4 males with hyperlinks to Russia accused of mass homicide for his or her alleged roles within the downing of the flight.
The MH17 passenger flight was shot down over jap Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew.
On the time, the realm was the scene of combating between pro-Russian separatist and Ukrainian forces, the precursor of this yr’s battle.
Victims’ representatives say the ruling will likely be an vital milestone, although the suspects, all of whom face life sentences, stay fugitives. They’re all believed to be in Russia, which is not going to extradite them.
Moscow denies any involvement or duty for MH17’s downing and in 2014 it additionally denied any presence in Ukraine.
Prosecutors say the suspects, three former Russian intelligence officers and a Ukrainian separatist army chief, helped organize and transport a Russian military BUK missile system into Ukraine that was used to shoot down the aircraft.
They have been charged with capturing down an airplane and with homicide in a trial held underneath Dutch legislation. They might alternatively be convicted of manslaughter costs if judges on the Hague District Courtroom discover the act was not premeditated.
Cellphone name intercepts that fashioned a key a part of the proof in opposition to the boys instructed they believed they have been focusing on a Ukrainian fighter jet.
Three of the boys have been tried in absentia and the fourth pleaded not responsible by way of attorneys he employed to signify him. None attended the trial.
Victims of MH17, which had been en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, got here from 10 completely different nations. Greater than half have been Dutch.
The investigation was led by the Netherlands, with participation from Ukraine, Malaysia, Australia and Belgium.
The suspects are Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy, and Oleg Pulatov; and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko.
