Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down in 2014 by a Russian-made missile fired from a field near Pervomaisk in eastern Ukraine, which at the time was under the control of DPR fighters.
Reuters writes about this.
“The court believes that MH17 was shot down by a Buk missile from an agricultural field near Pervomaisk, killing 283 passengers and 15 crew members. said the presiding judge Hendrik Steheis.
Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov, Leonid Kharchenko and the infamous Igor Strelkov-Girkin are accused of the attack on the civilian plane.
The court in The Hague considers the guilt of Strelkov-Girkin proven, Kharchenko and Dubinsky are considered participants in the launch of the rocket. Pulatov was found not guilty.
The court also recognized that the territory of the so-called “DPR” was controlled by the Russian Federation at the time of the downing of the plane.
In addition, according to the findings of the court in The Hague, the Buk air defense system used to shoot down MH17 was flown from Russia to Ukraine and then returned.
As a result, the court sentenced Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Leonid Kharchenko to life imprisonment.
“The court sentences Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko to life imprisonment. The court ordered their detention in custody. The consideration of the case at first instance has ended. A complaint can be filed within 14 days”. said the presiding judge.
The court also indicated that there were no mitigating circumstances for the accused.
However, the Russian Federation has already announced that it refuses to extradite two convicts to the Netherlands – Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinsky.
“The Constitution of Russia establishes a direct ban on the extradition of Russian citizens to foreign countries. Therefore, not a single convict will be extradited.” a source from the law enforcement authorities told Interfax.
We will recall that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down on July 17, 2014 over the Russian-occupied territory of the Donetsk region. All 298 people on board died. Most of the dead (196 people) were citizens of the Netherlands. On 24 May 2018, the Joint Investigation Team, which includes representatives from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine, provided further evidence of Russia’s key role in the downing of flight MH17. The group concluded that the Buk anti-aircraft missile complex that shot down the plane belonged to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, stationed in Kursk.
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