First modification:
Prosecutors in charge of the trial against four suspects in the 2014 downing of a commercial airliner in Ukraine asked for the maximum penalty. The verdict would be known next year.
Irreparable pain. A group of Dutch prosecutors requested this Wednesday, December 22, the sentence of life imprisonment for the four suspects in the downing of the plane with Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which occurred in 2014 in eastern Ukraine.
Prosecutors claimed that the defendants helped assemble a missile system that Russian separatists used to fire a rocket at the plane carrying 298 people on board and covering the Amsterdam – Kuala Lumpur route. The accident left no survivors.
The request was made by the prosecutor Manon Ridderbeks during the third day of the hearing and presentation of evidence. The suspects, Igor Girkin; Sergey Dubinsky; Oleg Pulatov and Leonid Kharchenko, are tried in absentia.
“The downing of the MH17 with a Buk missile brutally killed the 298 people on board. Incredibly deep and irreversible suffering has been caused to family members, “Ridderbeks told the court.
Dutch prosecutors asked for life in prison for the four defendants for the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine, tried in absentia for the deaths of 298 people on board. The plane was flying over a conflict zone #AFP pic.twitter.com/TuIeTFDhw1
– Agence France-Presse (@AFPespanol) December 22, 2021
The Netherlands blames Russia for the attack, while Moscow denies its involvement in the attack that left almost 300 dead, most of them Dutch.
After years of compilation and investigation, an international team of investigators concluded in May 2018 that the launcher used to shoot down the plane belonged to Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade.
“It is a relief that the prosecutors have requested the maximum sentence,” Piet Ploeg, who lost his brother, his nephew and his sister-in-law in the incident, assured those outside the prosecution, adding that although the four men do not reach being incarcerated, “it is just as important that the world know who was responsible.”
“We are just starting to move in the right direction … but the result will be in the future,” said Anton Kotte, who lost his son, daughter-in-law and six-year-old grandson when the MH17 was shot down. The relatives of the victims commented that it feels like a new beginning, but admitted that it is far from feeling true justice.
A message to the world
Prosecutor Ridderbeks said life imprisonment, unusual in the Netherlands, was necessary in the case of the MH17 downing due to the extreme nature of the crime and to act as a deterrent.
“It must send an unequivocal international message that aviation deserves the highest possible protection and that serious acts of violence against it will be severely punished,” he added.
Those involved are accused of being part of separatist rebels who created a team to shoot down Ukrainian planes. Prosecutor Thijs Berger told the judges that it is legally irrelevant that the suspects wanted to shoot down military planes and not civilians since “from a legal point of view they were normal citizens, they could not commit any type of violence.”
The trial comes at a tense moment between Moscow and the West due to the increase in the Russian military presence near the Ukrainian border and due to fears of a possible invasion.
Oleg Pulatov is the only suspect represented in court. His lawyers assured that they will present their evidence in March 2022, while the verdict is expected until September of next year.
Prosecutors concluded that the missile was brought to the launch site “on the orders and at the direction of the suspects.” For the Dutch justice, Girkin and Dubinskiy were high-level separatist rebels, while Pulatov and Kharchenko were their direct subordinates. “Together they are responsible for the deployment of the Buk loom used to bring down Flight MH17,” prosecutors summarized.
With AP and Reuters
.