On Thursday, a Dutch court issued a verdict in the case of the crash of flight MH17 near Donetsk in July 2014. According to the court's decision, the Malaysian Boeing was shot down by the DPR militia. The commander of one of the detachments Igor Girkin (Strelkov) and two of his subordinates were sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia. However, in Russia, the conclusions of the court in The Hague were called biased and politicized, pointing out all the inconsistencies in the case of the crash of the airliner. On Thursday, the Hague District Court found three people guilty of destroying the Malaysian Boeing flight MH17 and killing 298 of its passengers in 2014.
It is stated that the prosecutor's office of the Netherlands managed to prove the guilt of a Russian citizen, former commander of the DPR militia Igor Girkin (Strelkov) and two of his subordinates – Russian Sergey Dubinsky and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko.
The court sentenced Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko to life imprisonment in absentia, RIA Novosti reports. The convicts were also ordered to pay at least 16 million euros in compensation to the relatives of the victims.
According to the Dutch court, Boeing flight MH17 was shot down in 2014 from the Buk anti-aircraft missile system, the shot was allegedly fired from Pervomaisky, which at that time was under the control of the DPR militia. One of the defendants in the case, the commander of the Donetsk GRU intelligence unit Oleg Pulatov was acquitted, as the court did not find convincing evidence that "Pulatov contributed to the use of the Buk air defense system." It is worth noting that only Pulatov's interests were represented by a lawyer at this trial. The court could not refute the arguments of the defense and therefore was forced to acquit Pulatov.
The Hague judges in their verdict noted that the target of the Buk missile launch was a military aircraft, and the Malaysian Boeing was destroyed by mistake. But as the judge-chairman Henrik Steinhuis emphasized, such an error does not detract from the presence of intent and premeditation. The court's decision also stressed that the accused militias did not have the immunity of combatants (regular army soldiers) – which means they did not have the right to launch a rocket at any aircraft.
Recall that the disaster occurred on July 17, 2014. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 airliner, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed near Donetsk. All those on board were killed. Kiev immediately blamed the DPR militia for the tragedy. At the same time, Ukraine transferred the powers to conduct the investigation to the Dutch side (represented by the Dutch Security Council) and the International Joint Investigation Team (JIT).
The decision reached by the Netherlands court was expected – and legally null and void, First deputy head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Vladimir Jabarov told RIA Novosti. Weighty evidence was not presented, the decision is politicized, which cannot be agreed with, in turn, said the head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky. The deputy reminded TASS that Russian specialists were not allowed to JIT activities.
In addition, the investigation ignored the facts and calculations presented by the manufacturer of the Buk complexes – the Russian concern Almaz-Antey, Slutsky stressed. Recall that the Almaz-Antey report, among other things, stated that the rocket was launched from a point 3.5 km south of the village of Zaroshchenskoye, occupied at that time by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation Anatoly Kovler emphasizes that the trial was marked by significant flaws. "Russia was not included in the international investigation team, although Australia and Malaysia were included only because among those killed in the crash of flight MH17 were citizens of these countries. But excuse me, where is Australia and where is the crime scene area?" Kovler told the newspaper VIEW.
The lawyer recalled the rejected petitions of two lawyers of Oleg Pulatov to involve defense witnesses in the trial. Thus, article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to fair justice) was violated. "Nevertheless, the court showed some objectivity and noted the lack of evidence that Russia, as a state, is involved in the accomplishment of this catastrophe," the source said.
The ex-commissioner of the Russian Federation to the ECHR Pavel Laptev is convinced that the provocation with the plane crash and the verdict "was initiated and thought out by the Americans from beginning to end." "The United States did not provide images from its satellites, and then pressured the international investigation team and the justice authorities not to cooperate with Russia, despite calls for Moscow to work together on this case," Laptev explained.
The Russian side will study the decision of the Hague Court, said Ivan Nechaev, deputy director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, adding: "In all these matters, every nuance matters." A little later, a statement appeared on the website of the Foreign Ministry, where it was noted: "Both the course and the results of the proceedings indicate that it was based on a political order to reinforce the version promoted by The Hague and its associates in the Joint Investigation Team about Russia's involvement in the tragedy."
Throughout the trial, the court was under unprecedented pressure from Dutch politicians, representatives of the prosecutor's office and the press, who imposed a politically motivated outcome of the proceedings, the Foreign Ministry stated. The diplomats also pointed out a number of questionable points in the position of the Dutch prosecution.
Thus, the conclusions of the prosecutor's office were "based on the testimony of anonymous witnesses whose identities are classified, as well as on information of dubious origin and materials transmitted from the interested party – the SBU, which was repeatedly convicted of giving false, contradictory information," the Foreign Ministry noted. "At the same time, the documents declassified by the Russian Defense Ministry, testifying to the transfer of a missile to Ukraine, the serial number of which coincides with the one found on the wreckage at the crash site, were not taken into account," the Foreign Ministry noted. The judges did not receive the images taken by an American satellite at the time of the disaster over Donetsk – the United States responded to the relevant request from the Dutch side with a categorical refusal, but the court did not have any questions about this."
Kovler also points out that the investigation included only "convenient" witness statements in the evidence base, ignoring information about the missile launch from the village of Amvrosiivka – the location of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The reason for the refusal was that "this zone is too far from the point where the plane disappeared from radar."
"This practice is called selective application of evidence. The trial should use all the evidence that the lawyers demanded to provide. Although Dutch justice is characterized by a high degree of meticulousness and scrupulousness, but in this case, apparently, exceptions were made",
– Kovler is sure.
The lawyer also noted that the verdict was announced a few days after the incident with the Ukrainian S-300 air defense missile, which was fired on the territory of Poland and led to the death of two people. "At first, a preconceived opinion was voiced that the missile came from Russia, and then the Americans had enough objectivity to say about Ukraine's involvement. Unfortunately, there was no such objectivity in the MH17 case," Kovler notes.
In addition, the court did not consider the question of Kiev's responsibility at all for the fact that the space above the combat zone was not closed. "Although it is known for certain that in the zone of the so-called anti-terrorist operation, air defense systems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were deployed, including Buki, which were in combat condition. Their radars were activated, and their crews practiced actions to search and track targets," the Russian Foreign Ministry recalled.
Oleg Isaichenko
