The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found Russia responsible for the downing of Malaysian Airlines passenger plane flight MH17 in the Donetsk region. The tragedy occurred in 2014 and claimed the lives of 298 people.
ECtHR decision in MH17 case
The ECHR ruling said the Boeing 777, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down on 17 July 2014 by a Russian-made Buk missile fired from Russian-controlled Ukraine. All 298 passengers and crew, including 196 Dutch nationals, were killed.
Families of the MH17 victims see the ruling as a milestone in their 11-year fight for justice.
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“This is a real step toward understanding who is really responsible,” Thomas Shansman, who lost his 18-year-old son Quinn in the tragedy, told The Associated Press.
The Court also held that the suffering of the relatives of the MH17 victims fell within the scope of Article 3 of the Convention (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment).
The Dutch Minister of Defense Ruben Brekelmans responded to the ECHR decision, calling it “an important step towards justice.”
“The suffering of the relatives of the MH17 victims is enormous, and it is made worse by Russia's denial. Now the European Court has confirmed what we have known for 10 years: Russia is responsible. This is an important step towards justice. I hope it will help cope with the grief,” he wrote on the social network X.
What is known about the downing of flight MH17
The tragedy with the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane occurred on July 17, 2014, near the occupied Torez in Donetsk Oblast. The investigation established that the missile was launched from a Russian Buk anti-aircraft missile system.
On November 17, 2022, a court in The Hague found Sergei Dubinsky, Igor Girkin, and Leonid Kharchenko guilty of shooting down Boeing 777 flight MH17. They were sentenced to life imprisonment. The fourth suspect, Russian Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted.
The court also ruled that the relatives of all the deceased passengers should receive compensation for the emotional suffering they suffered as a result of the disaster in full – €16 million.
Let us recall that today, July 9, the ECHR announced its decision on the case of Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia, which combines four interstate complaints.
