It's been eight years since Flight MH17 was shot down.
Now a court decision has been made – but the accused are in Russia.
Amsterdam – A court in the Netherlands is pronouncing the verdict on the crash of the MH17 passenger plane a good eight years ago.
Judge Hendrik Steenhuis apparently made it clear early on that the judiciary sees Russia as responsible: According to a tweet by
Bellingcat
journalist Christo Grozew, the Kremlin controlled the pro-Russian forces.
The concrete verdict on the charges is still pending.
At 3:20 p.m. on July 17, 2014, a rocket exploded on the left side of the cockpit, a good 10 kilometers above the contested area in eastern Ukraine.
Hundreds of tiny particles had pierced the plane.
MH17: Verdict on plane downing that kills 298 - Focus on high-level separatists
The victims came from ten countries, four of them from Germany.
Since most of the fatalities came from the Netherlands, the trial will also take place there.
The accused - three Russians and one Ukrainian - were high-ranking pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine: Igor Girkin was a former Russian intelligence officer and commander of the separatists in Donbass, known as "Strelkov".
Sergey Dubinsky, a former Russian officer and Girkin's deputy.
Oleg Pulatov, in turn, was Dubinsky's assistant.
Leonid Kharchenko, the Ukrainian, is said to have led a combat unit in the region
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November 2014: Journalists inspect the crash site of flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine.
© Menahem Kahana/AFP
The prosecution accused them of having procured the missile that shot down the plane.
Maybe it was a mistake and they wanted to hit a Ukrainian military plane.
The prosecution has asked for life imprisonment four times.
MH17 verdict: defendants in Russia – they never appeared
The defendants never appeared at the court hearings.
Only one of them, the Russian Oleg Pulatov, had allowed himself to be defended.
All four are said to be in Russia.
Russia has always denied any responsibility, blaming Ukraine for the downing.
The Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down by a Russian Buk anti-aircraft missile on July 17, 2014 while en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over a contested area.
All 298 people on board were killed.
The trial lasted two years and eight months, and more than 90 relatives of the victims testified in court.
(
dpa/fn
)