Life imprisonment for shooting down MH17
Dette innlegget er også tilgjengelig i: Norsk bokmål Русский Українська
Two Russians and a Ukrainian from Donbas have been sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting down a passenger plane in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The passenger plane route MH17 was on its way from the Netherlands to Malaysia. 298 people lost their lives. Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and a Ukrainian, Leonid Kharchenko were convicted in a trial in the Netherlands. Igor Girkin (also known as Igor Strelkov) is a well-known Russian nationalist. Among other things, he had a central role in the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Russia with overall control
The court also states that Russia is responsible for the downing. According to the verdict, Russia had overall control over the separatist-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine.
Russia, for its part, rejects the trial by saying it is politically motivated.
The Dutch Air Accidents Commission’s investigation concluded that the plane was shot down by a Russian Buk M1 missile. I mentioned this in a previous blog .
You can read the report from the air accident commission here (English version).
Convicted for the shooting, probably never imprisoned
The three convicts were not present during the trial. They stay in Russia or in occupied territories in Ukraine. If they leave Russia, they will probably be arrested and transported to the Netherlands for sentencing. The three were also sentenced to pay a large compensation to the bereaved. This money will probably never be paid. A fourth defendant was acquitted because the court found the evidence against him to be insufficient.
Igor Girkin is probably part of the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. If he were to be caught, he would certainly be extradited to the Netherlands. That the Russian authorities extradite these three is completely out of the question, unless there is a completely different regime in Russia.
The trial is a verdict on war crimes committed against civilians. At the time, this war crime affected civilians from countries other than those involved. The downing of MH17 was almost certainly a mix-up between a civilian plane and a passenger plane. This was clear from what Igor Girkin posted on social media when they crashed the plane. He boasted that they had shot down a plane, which they said was Ukrainian. When they discovered the error, the messages on social media were deleted.
Sources:
Dutch court sentences three to life in prison for 2014 downing of MH17 over Ukraine | Reuters