A Dutch court convicted three men of murder for their role in shooting down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet with a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard the aircraft as it flew over a separatist-controlled region of Ukraine.
SCHIPHOL, Netherlands — A Dutch court on Thursday convicted three men of murder for their role in shooting down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet with a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard the aircraft as it flew over a separatist-controlled region of eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said evidence presented by prosecutors in the trial that lasted more than two years proved the Boeing 777 was brought down by a Buk missile fired by pro-Moscow Ukrainian fighters on July 17, 2014. The crash scattered wreckage and bodies over farmland and fields of sunflowers.
Russians Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and Ukrainian separatist Leonid Kharchenko, who remain at large, were convicted for their role in bringing the Buk missile system from a Russian military base into Ukraine and putting it into position for its launch. For the families, the ordeal of attending the trial was compounded by the fact that it was held near the airport where their loved ones embarked on the fateful flight. Outside the court, planes could be heard taking off and landing nearby on a cold, gray day.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the verdict was a vital first step in assigning responsibility for the crime but added that more prosecutions and convictions were needed. “There is no reasonable doubt possible,” he added, dismissing defense arguments that something else might have happened to the plane.
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