"Political favour": Russia rejects court decision on Flight MH17

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has said that it does not recognise the verdict of the District Court of the Hague on Flight MH17, which was shot down while flying over Donbas in July 2014, because a "political favour" was "at its core."

Source: European Pravda

Quote from the Russian Foreign Ministry: "Throughout the trial, the court experienced unprecedented pressure from Dutch politicians, representatives of the prosecutor’s office, and media, which were pushing for a politically biased outcome."

Details: The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that because of the interstate lawsuit filed against Russia in the MH17 case, the Netherlands "simply could not allow any other verdict at the national level than a guilty verdict, because in this case their arguments in international formats would crumble."

Russia recited its narrative about the dubious nature of testimonies given in the MH17 case because they were submitted anonymously, while Russian arguments were rejected.

"We deeply regret that the District Court of the Hague has disregarded the principles of impartial justice to fit with the current political consensus, thereby causing a serious reputational blow to the entire judicial system of the Netherlands," the Russian Foreign Ministry added.

Background: The Hague district court, which is hearing case of the downed passenger plane, found Igor Girkin, an organiser of militant groups in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), and Sergey Dubinskiy and Leonid Kharchenko, his subordinate militants, guilty of shooting down the aircraft. All three defendants were convicted to life-long imprisonment in absentia. The court ordered them arrested. They were also ordered to pay "more than €16m" in compensation to the victims.

The fourth defendant, Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted of the charges owing to lack of evidence about his role in the firing of the missile, despite the fact that he was Girkin’s deputy and had ordered the other defendants to evacuate the Buk missile system, which was used to fire the missile that shot down the plane.

The court in the Hague also recognised that Russia was controlling the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic when flight MH17 was brought down.

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