Netherlands, Australia To Hold Russia Accountable For MH17 Crash - Dutch Foreign Minister

The Netherlands and Australia will continue to hold Russia accountable for the crash of the MH17 plane in Donbas in 2014 following the verdict of the Hague District Court on the case, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th November, 2022) The Netherlands and Australia will continue to hold Russia accountable for the crash of the MH17 plane in Donbas in 2014 following the verdict of the Hague District Court on the case, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Thursday.

Last week, the court found two Russian citizens, Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky, and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko guilty of shooting down the MH17 plane and sentenced them to life imprisonment in absentia. They also have to pay 16 million euro ($16.6 million) in damages to families of the victims. The fourth defendant, Russian national Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted of the charges. The Hague court did not directly link the use of the Buk air defense system that led to the plane crash with Moscow, but said that Russia controlled the region where the incident happened at the time.

"This verdict marked a milestone towards finding truth and establishing justice. #Australia and the Netherlands are united in continuing procedures under international law to hold Russia accountable for its role in the downing of flight #MH17," Hoekstra tweeted after a phone conversation with his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong.

In March, the Dutch cabinet said that the Netherlands and Australia had filed a joint complaint against Russia with ICAO in the case of the MH17 plane crash.

The MH17 passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia crashed in the Donbas conflict zone on July 17, 2014. All 298 passengers, mostly Dutch citizens, and crew members on board were killed.

In 2016, the Dutch-led international Joint Investigation Team, which does not include Russia, concluded that the aircraft was shot by a Russian-made Buk missile that was brought to the Donbas area controlled by independence fighters from a military brigade stationed in the Russian city of Kursk. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the JIT allegations of Russia's links to the crash were groundless, adding that the investigation was biased and one-sided. According to Moscow, the Buk missile belonged to Ukraine and was launched from Kiev-controlled territory.