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Malaysia supports Hague Court’s verdict in MH17 case

The Malaysian Airlines Boeing-777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk Region of Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing 298 passengers

© EPA-EFE/REMKO DE WAAL

BANGKOK, November 18. /TASS/. Malaysia is satisfied with a Dutch court’s verdict in the criminal case on the crash of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing-777 over Ukraine in July 2014.

According to Malay Mail, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that the decision of the Hague District Court has set an important benchmark in the quest to find the truth and bring justice to all the 298 victims, including 43 Malaysians who perished in the tragedy, as well as to their families and next-of-kin.

"Malaysia is also satisfied with the reliable and transparent trial carried out via the Dutch legal system based on the rule of law in order to obtain the long-awaited justice," the prime minister said.

A Dutch court on Thursday ruled against three defendants in the case of the MH17 flight disaster that occurred over Ukraine in July 2014. The men in question are the former head of the Donetsk People's Republic’s militia Igor Girkin (Strelkov) and his subordinates Sergey Dubinsky and Leonid Kharchenko. They were charged with bringing a Buk missile defense system from Russia to Ukraine. According to Dutch and Belgian investigators, a missile launched with this system shot down the passenger plane. Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment. The fourth defendant, Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted.

The Malaysian Airlines Boeing-777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk Region of Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing 298 passengers - citizens of 10 states. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) announced in June 2019 that it had identified a group of four people suspected of being involved in the incident. Their trial began in the Netherlands on March 9, 2020.

Russian officials have repeatedly expressed distrust towards the investigation team, pointing to the groundlessness of the prosecution's arguments and reluctance to take into account Moscow's arguments in the course of the investigation.

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