Court convicts three men in downing of Malaysia flight

A Dutch panel of judges on Thursday convicted two Russians and one pro-Russia Ukrainian of shooting down a Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in 2014, killing 298 people. Russians Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, with Ukrainian separatist Leonid Kharchenko, were convicted of bringing a missile system into a separatist-held region of Ukraine. The court said they brought it in from a Russian military base. Russian Oleg Pulatov was the only defendant in the case who was represented by a defense lawyer, and he was acquitted for lack of evidence. The trial started in March 2020 and the men were convicted in absentia since none of them had been arrested.

What does the trial mean for victims? The court awarded more than 16 million euros ($16.5 million) to the families of the victims, but it is unclear if they will be paid. Some victims’ families who were at the trial said that even though there were no arrests, the trial is the first step to justice.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Leigh Jones’ report in The Sift on when the flight was first found.