3 convicted, 1 not guilty in MH17 shooting down murder

The court is preparing to pass judgment. Photo: Remko de Waal ANP

Three of the four men tried in the Netherlands for shooting down Flight MH17 in 2014 were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison, while the fourth was acquitted of all charges.

A judge at the High Security Court near Schiphol said Thursday afternoon that the case against the three men had been substantiated, but that there was no evidence that a fourth Russian national, Oleg Platov, was involved in the decision to use the Buk missile. rice field. .

Platov was the only one of the four to hire a lawyer. not received a fair trial.

None of the three Russian and one Ukrainian suspects appeared in a high-security court near Schiphol airport to hear the verdict. Prosecutors demanded life imprisonment for all four of his men.

The court that sentenced Igor Garkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko to life in prison said it had an “overwhelming amount of evidence” that MH17 was shot down by a Buk missile.

The court documents did not indicate who ordered the missile launch, why it happened or who the crew were, the court said.

“But anyone who has used such a weapon will be aware of the enormous consequences it can have,” the court said. Hitting the plane may have been a mistake, but that doesn’t detract from the intent.

An official investigation concluded in 2016 that the plane was shot down from Ukrainian farmland by a BUK missile “controlled by a pro-Russian fighter”. Contested by Russia.

Passengers and crew came from 17 countries and included 196 Dutch nationals.