THE HAGUE, February 29. /TASS/. The Netherlands does not rule out demanding compensation from Russia for the crash of flight MH17 "within the framework of legal proceedings," Acting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on his X (formerly Twitter) page.
Commenting on the publication of a report by the Netherlands Court of Audit, according to which the damage caused to the government by the tragedy amounted to at least 166 million euros, he wrote: "The government is very grateful for this report. While the suffering of the families and friends cannot be alleviated, we can take a step towards justice. This report may lead to a valid claim for compensation in the Netherlands' legal proceedings against Russia." Rutte did not specify which case he was referring to.
The MH17 case is currently before the European Court of Human Rights. In addition, the Netherlands and Australia have appealed to the International Civil Aviation Organization to determine Russia's involvement in the tragedy.
The report published earlier said that the damage caused by the crash of flight MH17 for the Dutch government has already amounted to at least 166 million euros. According to the document, most of the money (53.3 million euros) was spent on the criminal investigation of the tragedy by the Joint Investigation Team, which included Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine in addition to the Netherlands. A further 34.1 million euros was spent on organizing the prosecution of suspects and the trial.
Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing-777 (passenger flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur) crashed near Donetsk on July 17, 2014, killing 298 people, citizens of 10 countries. The criminal case on the fact of the crash was considered by the District Court of The Hague. In November 2022, the court found guilty and sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment three people: former head of the Donetsk People’s Republic’s militia Igor Girkin (Strelkov) and his subordinates Sergey Dubinsky and Leonid Kharchenko. The fourth defendant, Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted due to insufficient evidence of his involvement in the incident. Russian officials have repeatedly expressed distrust of the investigative team's findings, pointing to the baselessness of the prosecution's case and its unwillingness to use Moscow's findings in the investigation.