Hopes for justice fade as downing of MH17 hits 10 years
THE HAGUE – As relatives gather on July 17 to mourn victims on the 10th anniversary of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, hopes are fading that those responsible for shooting down the plane will soon be behind bars.
Russia has refused to extradite three men convicted by a Dutch court, and in 2023 international investigators suspended their work, saying there was not enough evidence to prosecute more suspects.
“I don’t think those responsible will serve their sentences,” said Mr Evert van Zijtveld, who lost his daughter Frederique, 19, his son Robert-Jan, 18, as well as his parents-in-law.
On July 17, hundreds of relatives, as well as government representatives and dignitaries, are expected at an event at a memorial park near Schiphol airport, where the doomed flight took off on a bright summer’s day on July 17, 2014.
Hours later, the Boeing 777 jet was shot down by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine, as it passed on a flight line towards Kuala Lumpur. All 298 people on board were killed.
The memorial will be broadcast live on national television from 1.30pm (7.30pm Singapore time), while many of the Netherlands’ main cities said they will fly the Dutch flag at half-mast on the day.
Several speakers will make statements and the names of all the victims will be read, the organisers said.
The victims came from at least 10 countries, with 196 of them Dutch, 43 Malaysian and 38 Australian.
Memorials are also planned elsewhere, including a service in the Australian Parliament.
A Dutch court in November 2022 sentenced in absentia three men to life imprisonment for their roles in bringing down the plane over separatist-held pro-Russian territory, during the early stages of a war that saw Moscow seize the Crimean peninsula.
Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko could all be held responsible for the transport of the BUK missile from a military base in Russia and deploying it to the launch site, the judges said – even if they did not launch the missile themselves.
None of the guilty suspects took part in the legal proceedings or acknowledged their roles in the incident.
A fourth man, Mr Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted.
Though international investigators have suspended their work, they concluded there were “strong indications” that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the supply of the missile that downed the plane.
Russia has denied any involvement and dismissed the 2022 court verdict as “scandalous” and politically motivated.
The EU, however, on July 16 called upon Moscow to “accept its responsibility in this tragedy and cooperate fully in serving justice”.
The evidence presented during the MH17 trial “makes it abundantly clear that the BUK surface-to-air missile system used to bring down flight MH17 belonged beyond doubt to the armed forces of the Russian Federation”, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
Moscow has refused to extradite any of the suspects, saying it is illegal under Russian law.
“The invasion of Ukraine and the escalation of the war has made that really difficult to believe that any of them will be arrested soon,” Mr van Zijtveld told AFP ahead of the memorial, referring to the war against Ukraine launched by Russia in February 2022. – AFP
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