The Boeing of Malaysia Airlines was shot in 2014 in Ukrainian airspace. The 298 people on board died.
Le Monde with AFP
Dutch prosecutors required Wednesday, December 22 the life prison against the four men pursued for the MH17 flight crash of Malaysia Airlines flying over East of Ukraine in 2014. They are accused of the murder of 298 people who found on board.
The Russians Sergei Doubinski, Igor Guirkin and Oleg Poulatov as well as Ukrainian Leonid Khartchenko, four graded high grades of the precrussion separatists of eastern Ukrainian, are accused of having shot the plane with a Floor-Air BUK missile brought of a Russian military base – Moscow has always denied any involvement.
Prosecutors claimed that the four suspects played a central role in the delivery of an anti-aircraft battery, probably intended to strike a Ukrainian war plane. “If that were their intention, it does not change the prosecution to make it a criminal offense,” said the prosecutors. The Dutch law “does not distinguish between military and civil aircraft. All violence against aviation must be severely punished,” they supported.
“The suspects used the” Buk as a clean affiller, “said the Thijs Berger prosecutor. At hearings this week, Mr. Berger said that men judged “did not support the button themselves, but (…) used it for their armed struggle in order to destroy an airplane”.
Accused absent at trial
The best known of the suspects, Igor Guirkin, 49, nicknamed “Strelkov” (“shooter”), was one of the main commanders of the separatists at the beginning of the conflict against the Ukrainian army, five years ago, And probably their most media representative at the time. Sergei Doubinski, 57, would be related to Russian military intelligence. Oleg Poulatov, 53, is a former member of the Russian and Deputy Special Forces of Mr. Doubinski. Leonid Khartchenko, 48, would have directed a separatist unit in the east of Ukraine.
None of the suspects visited the trial, which started in March 2020 in the Netherlands. Only Mr. Poulatov is represented by lawyers. Hearings intervene on the background of increasing Russian-Western tensions around Ukraine. Americans and Europeans accuse Moscow to prepare a military offensive.
The verdict of the Schiphol court, near Amsterdam and located within a few minutes of the airport from where the Boeing to the tragic destiny had taken off, is not expected before the end 2022.