Russia to review Dutch court’s decision in MH17 crash case, MFA official says
Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala-Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk Region of Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing 298 people from ten countries
MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/. Moscow will scrutinize a Dutch court’s decision in the case of the 2014 Boeing crash in the Donetsk Region of Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesman Ivan Nechayev said at a briefing on Thursday.
"We will analyze this decision because as far as all these issues go, every nuance matters," he said. "We will be ready to make a comment after examining this legal document," Nechayev added.
Earlier on Thursday, a Dutch court began ruling on the MH17 crash case, saying that the Boeing had been downed by a Buk missile fired from near the Pervomayskoye settlement, which was at the time controlled by the Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DPR) militia.
Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala-Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk Region of Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing 298 people from ten countries. In June 2019, the Joint Investigative Team (JIT) announced that it had identified a group of four people, suspected of being involved in the incident. They are former militia leader in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Igor Girkin, also known as Igor Strelkov, and his subordinates Sergey Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Leonid Kharchenko. The trial against them began in the Netherlands on March 9, 2020. They are accused of delivering a Buk missile system from Russia to Ukraine. The trial is taking place in the absence of the accused, with two Dutch lawyers representing Pulatov’s interests. The prosecution demands life imprisonment for all the defendants. Lawyers also seek material compensation for the relatives of the victims. Russian officials have repeatedly expressed their lack of confidence in the results of the JIT’s work, and pointed out the groundlessness of the accusations, as well as the unwillingness to use Moscow’s conclusions during the investigation.