Almost 6 Many years After MH17 Was Shot Down, Dutch Prosecutors Say They Will Sue Russia : NPR

A guy carrying military fatigues stands upcoming to the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines MH17 carrying 298 passengers and crew, that crashed in eastern Ukraine 6 decades ago.

Dominique Faget/AFP through Getty Pictures

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Dominique Faget/AFP via Getty Pictures

A male wearing army fatigues stands following to the wreckage of Malaysia Airways MH17 carrying 298 travellers and crew, that crashed in eastern Ukraine six several years in the past.

Dominique Faget/AFP via Getty Visuals

The Netherlands mentioned Friday that it will sue Russia at the European Court of Human Rights for Moscow’s alleged part in the shooting down of an airliner in excess of Ukraine six several years back that killed all 298 aboard, two-thirds of whom have been Dutch.

Russia has denied any involvement in the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, which went down on July 17, 2014. However, Dutch investigators have concluded that the Boeing 777 was strike by a surface area-to-air missile supplied to professional-Russian rebels in jap Ukraine. A very similar summary is extensively approved by Western intelligence.

“Attaining justice for 298 victims of the downing of Flight MH17 is and will stay the government’s best priority,” Foreign Minister Stef Blok claimed. “By taking this move these days … we are shifting closer to this intention.”

In a letter to parliament, the Dutch governing administration reported it hopes to get “truth, justice and accountability” for those people who died in the crash.

M.V. Zakharova, a Russian overseas ministry spokesperson, known as the go by the Netherlands “a further blow to Russian-Dutch relations.”

“The Hague from the really beginning embarked on the route of unilateral blaming Russia for the crash of flight MH17,” the spokesperson explained in a assertion. “We imagine that this step will only direct to further politicization and will complicate the lookup for truth of the matter.”

Last yr, Dutch prosecutors billed 4 folks – 3 Russians and a person Ukrainian who it claimed were being responsible for downing the jetliner. The most popular of the 4 is Igor Girkin, who prosecutors contend is a former Russian intelligence officer who operated out of the rebel-held jap town of Donetsk.

Girkin has denied that the rebels shot down the airplane.

Russia refuses to extradite its citizens and the Ukrainian billed is thought to have acquired a Russian passport. As a result, the 4 are staying attempted in abstentia in a Dutch court.

Investigators concluded that Russian forces transferred a Buk mobile surface-to-air missile battery to the rebels, who made use of it to shoot down the airliner, likely since they mistook it for a Ukrainian armed service transportation.

The fit in opposition to Russia is meant to assist specific situations introduced by kinfolk of 65 of the Dutch victims.

“Quite a few family members have started procedures and have now entered a stage in which they have to have evidence,” Blok wrote in his letter to parliament. “We have that evidence and supplying it to the courtroom by starting off this technique is the greatest way to aid them.”