On July 17, 2014, this Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur plane crashed while flying over eastern Ukraine, killing 298 people.
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Posted on 08/15/2022 5:39 PM Updated on 08/15/2022 6:32 PM
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A court decision following the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 that killed 298 people. The Dutch judiciary will give its verdict in this case on November 17, the court in The Hague announced on Monday, August 15. On July 17, 2014, this Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur plane crashed while flying over eastern Ukraine. The trial, which began in March 2020, took place near Amsterdam under tight security, especially as most of the victims are Dutch.
An international investigative team says the plane was shot down over the zone of conflict with pro-Russian separatists by a missile brought in from a Russian military base. Moscow has always denied any involvement. Three Russians, Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinski and Oleg Pulatov, and a Ukrainian, Leonid Kharchenko, all senior pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, are accused of shooting down flight MH17 with a surface-to-air missile.
Prosecutors in December sought life sentences for the four defendants, saying they played a crucial role in securing the Buk missile system, which was likely intended to shoot down a Ukrainian warplane. The four accused, who have maintained their innocence, have refused to appear and were tried in absentia.
Only Oleg Poulatov had legal counsel. For his advice, the judges did not show that a Russian-supplied Buk missile downed the Boeing 777 airliner, noting that there were “gaps” in the record. They pleaded for the acquittal of their client.