30 Apr / 2024
A regular court hearing in the case of the downing of flight MH17 has started in the Schiphol court complex in the Netherlands.
This is reported by UA with reference to Ukrinform.
Relatives of the victims have the floor in court. They hope that the court will indicate in the verdict what Russia’s role was in the MH17 tragedy, and who else, apart from the four accused, may be involved in the tragedy.
“We know quite a lot about the four accused, but we do not know about those who are to blame for the tragedy on the part of Russia. I hope that in the verdict the court will indicate that this was the system that was Russia’s role, what it was doing in eastern Ukraine. This is very important for relatives” – said Dutchman Piet Ploeg, chairman of the Disaster Foundation, who lost his brother, daughter-in-law and nephew in the tragedy.
He also noted that Russia’s role in the MH17 tragedy is very important to reflect in order to prevent such catastrophes in the future. Thus, in his opinion, the downing of a Ukrainian plane in Iran is an imitation of such behavior.
“It is important to reflect Russia’s role so that the international community can prevent this in the future. Last year, we saw in Iran how easily this could happen again. Russia’s behavior can be called in one word – disgusting. Russia is lying, not cooperating, blaming Ukraine” – he stressed.
In total, 8 relatives of the victims will have the floor in court today.
The Hague District Court in March 2020 began hearing the case of the crash of flight MH17.
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 flying MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in the temporarily occupied part of the Donetsk region on July 17, 2014. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board, all of them died.
An international investigation team has concluded that the plane was shot down by the Buk anti-aircraft missile system, which belongs to the 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, stationed in Kursk.
On June 19, 2019, the investigative team named the four suspects who are believed to be involved in the transportation and combat use of the anti-aircraft missile system Buk. This is a former FSB officer, the so-called former DPR Defense Minister Igor Girkin (Strelkov), a general, and at the time of the downing of the plane, GRU Colonel of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, DPR GRU Chief Sergei Dubinsky, GRU Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Pulatov (all Russian citizens), a citizen of Ukraine Leonid Kharchenko, who fought on the side of the “DPR”.
To remind, hearings in the case of the downed MH17 were resumed in the Netherlands.
Read also: Victims of the MH17 tragedy demand to identify those guilty of downing of the plane
