The most important formation of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) examined on Wednesday January 26 the possible violation by Russia of human rights in the downing of flight MH17 in 2014 in eastern Ukraine .
Read alsoRussia put on the hot seat in the trial of flight MH17
This Grand Chamber hearing concerned the admissibility of three state-to-state applications: two between Ukraine and Russia concerning the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014, and a third between the Netherlands and Russia over the MH17 crash.
"
To date, no one has taken responsibility (for the crash), which has added and continues to add to the already enormous pain of loved ones
", pleaded, during a hearing lasting several hours, Babette Koopman , on behalf of the Dutch government.
“Geopolitical conflict”
On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed while flying over eastern Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew. edge. An international team of investigators say the plane was shot down over the area of armed conflict with pro-Russian separatists, by a missile delivered from a Russian military base, probably in order to fight against Ukrainian forces. Moscow has always denied any involvement.
"
Due to the behavior of the Russians, the legal proceedings are unnecessarily delayed
", further complicating the mourning of the relatives of the victims, insisted before the court Piet Ploeg, president of the "
Air Disaster MH17
" foundation.
“
The relatives feel powerless because they are involved in a geopolitical conflict in a world over which they have no influence.
They feel like they only play a minor role in Russia's power game
,” added the man who lost his brother, sister-in-law and nephew in the crash.
Unsurprisingly, Russia pleaded for the inadmissibility of the requests from the Netherlands and Ukraine, whose position was defended by its Minister of Justice Denys Maliouska.
"
The authorities of the Russian Federation insist on their non-involvement in the crash
", declared in court Mikhail Vinogradov, representative of the Russian government.
At the end of the debates on Wednesday, the 17 judges of the Grand Chamber of the ECHR, all of different nationalities (including one from each country concerned by the applications), will retire to deliberate.
Their decision will not be made for at least several months.
