Flight MH17 hearing CLEARS one suspect and convicts three others

A Dutch court has acquitted one suspect and convicted three others of downing Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 after a judge confirmed that the plane was shot down by a Russian-made missile in 2014.

Two former Russian intelligence officers and a Ukrainian stooge who worked for Putin have been convicted of a role in the aviation disaster in which a Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was blown out of the sky over Ukraine, killing all 289 passengers and crew came .

A third former Russian intelligence officer was acquitted in the long-awaited verdict.

The July 17, 2014, mid-air explosion and crash occurred during a conflict between pro-Russian separatist and Ukrainian forces.

Judge Hendrik Steenhuis opened the hearing on Thursday and said the court believes that MH17 was shot down by a Russian-made Buk missile launched from an agricultural field in eastern Ukraine.

In another key finding, Steenhuis said the court held that Russia was in overall control of a separatist region in eastern Ukraine, the Donetsk People’s Republic, at the time. The crash scattered wreckage and bodies across farmland and fields of sunflowers.

The judge said he would rule later on other legal issues and the guilt or innocence of the suspects.

The suspects are former Russian intelligence officers Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov, as well as Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, who has ties to Russia.

Wilbert Paulissen, head of the national police of the Netherlands, announces murder charges against three Russians and a Ukrainian for the shooting down of MH17

Piet Ploeg, who lost his brother, his sister-in-law and his cousin in the downing of MH17, spokesperson for the victims’ relatives smiles (center right with green tie) before the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 trial hearing at the high-security court on Schiphol Airport, near Amsterdam, Netherlands on Thursday

Lawyers attend the judges’ inspection of the reconstruction of the wreckage of the MH17, as part of the murder trial ahead of the start of a critical phase, in Reijen, the Netherlands, in May 2021

People inspect the crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Hrabove, in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region of Ukraine in July 2014

The courtroom was packed with relatives of the 298 victims of the aviation disaster and tensions were high among those who had lost their loved ones ahead of the hearing.

“The truth on the table – that’s the most important thing,” said Anton Kotte, who lost his son, daughter-in-law and his 6-year-old grandson when MH17 was shot down. He said the hearing was a “D-Day” for family members.

Robbert van Heijningen, who lost his brother, sister-in-law and cousin, called the downing “an act of barbarism” that he could never put behind him, regardless of the verdict.

“I call it a stone in my heart, and stones… don’t go away,” he said.

None of the suspects appeared for the trial which began in March 2020 and if convicted they are unlikely to serve a sentence anytime soon. Prosecutors have sought life sentences for all four. Prosecutors and the defendants have two weeks to appeal.

Prosecutors say the suspects, three former Russian intelligence officers and a Ukrainian stooge who worked for Vladimir Putin, helped arrange and transport a BUK missile system from the Russian army to Ukraine that was used to shoot down the plane.

Intercepted phone calls that were a major part of the evidence against the men suggested they believed they were targeting a Ukrainian fighter jet.

The court in The Hague, sitting in a high-security courtroom at Schiphol, is handing down a verdict against the backdrop of global geopolitical unrest following the outright Russian invasion of Ukraine in February and the nearly nine-month war that ensued.

Investigators work at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 near the village of Hrabove (Grabovo), some 80 km east of Donetsk, on July 25, 2014

Australian and Dutch investigators examine a piece of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 aircraft near the village of Hrabove, in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, on August 1, 2014

Hundreds of relatives of those killed traveled to court to hear the verdict and returned them to the airport their loved ones had left behind on the fateful day MH17 was shot down. Outside the courthouse, on a cold, gray day, planes could be heard taking off and landing nearby.

Dutch prosecutors say the rocket launcher came from the 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade, a unit of the Russian armed forces stationed in the Russian city of Kursk and driven back there after flight MH17 was shot down.

The suspects are not charged with firing the missile, but with collaborating to get it to the field where it was fired. They are charged with the downing of the plane and the murder of all on board.

The oldest defendant is Igor Girkin, a 51-year-old former colonel of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). At the time of the downing, he was the defense minister and commander of the armed forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic – the region where the plane was shot down. Girkin is reportedly currently involved in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Also on trial are Girkin’s subordinates Sergey Dubinskiy, Oleg Pulatov and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian who prosecutors say was commander of a pro-Russian rebel fighting unit and followed orders directly from Dubinskiy.

Pulatov is the only one of the accused who was represented by defense lawyers at the trial. They accused prosecutors of “tunnel vision” in basing their case on the findings of an international investigation into the downing, while ignoring other possible causes.

Pulatov’s defense team also tried to discredit evidence, arguing that he had not received a fair trial.

In a video recording played in court, Pulatov insisted he was innocent, telling the judges, “What matters to me is that the truth be revealed. It is important to me that my country is not blamed for this tragedy.’

Moscow denies any involvement in or responsibility for the downing of MH17 and in 2014 also denied any presence in Ukraine. At a briefing in Moscow on Thursday, deputy foreign ministry spokesman Ivan Nechaev told reporters the government would investigate the court’s findings.