After 8 years: life sentence and surprising acquittal in MH17 trial

Three life sentences, but also one acquittal. The MH17 trial against three Russian and one Ukrainian suspects may have been predictable in recent years, but the verdict contained a big surprise: according to the court in The Hague, former Russian professional soldier Oleg Poelatov is not to blame for the downing of Malaysia’s Boeing 777 Airlines over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 – not in an indirect sense either.

The court ruling follows more than eight years of international investigation that has been constantly opposed by Russia and led to great tensions between Moscow and The Hague. This, moreover, against the background of the war in Ukraine since the Russian invasion of February 24. The fact that the court imposed no fewer than three life sentences is a reward for the work of the international investigative team that investigated the case.

But where the court endorses the facts presented by the Public Prosecution Service, the judges refused to go along with the legal interpretation thereof.

Suspects Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Leonid Chartsjenko – who all failed to attend the trial – did not themselves fire the fatal missile as executives, but, according to the Public Prosecution Service, played a major role in leading a Boek anti-aircraft system , the deployment of the weapon and the evacuation to Russia, after it became clear that a passenger plane with 298 people on board had been shot down.

In its closing statement, the Public Prosecution Service made no distinction between the suspects: the four formed a “closely cooperating group of offenders”. All four can therefore be qualified as “(functional) co-perpetrators” of both murder and “crashing an aircraft” and deserve life imprisonment, according to the Public Prosecution Service.

The court did not agree with this reasoning. In the criminal file, the judges found “no evidence” for a closely cooperating group of perpetrators. This means, the court stated, that the responsibility of the four suspects must be assessed individually.

There can be no impunity for such crimes. My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the 298 innocent victims

Jens Stoltenberg Secretary General of NATO

Different weighting

That weighting turned out very differently. Sergey Dubinsky and Leonid Kharchenko were directly involved in transporting the Book of Donetsk to the firing site, guarding the weapon system and evacuating it. They are therefore “co-perpetrators”, the court ruled.

Read also: veteran Igor Girkin joins the fight again

No such “active contribution” can be established from Igor Girkin – according to the court, it has not even been conclusively proven that he was aware of the use of the Book system on July 17. But Girkin (alias “Igor Strelkov”) did know that Ukrainian warplanes had been shot down before, and as defense minister of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” and commander of the separatists, he had “the opportunity to decide whether or not to launch a Book- Telar (launcher, ed.)”. Girkin, the court said with reference to case law of the Supreme Court, thus “accepted” the deployment of the Book anti-aircraft system and also had “control” over it, so that he can be qualified as a “functional” co-perpetrator: someone who enables to commit a crime.

For Oleg Pulatov, the bar of functional co-perpetration is not met. The former Russian professional officer had a major role in the fierce fighting that took place on July 17, 2014 and knew about the deployment of the Boek, but had no authority over it. It was Leonid Chartchenko who had the weapon system set up on the orders of Dubinsky. Pulatov had no influence on this: at the time the rocket was fired he was not even close by. The court therefore acquitted Pulatov.

OM: ‘The same line’

The three other suspects were sentenced to life imprisonment. According to the judge, the proven facts are so serious that “only the heaviest possible prison sentence is an appropriate punishment.”

Subsequently, Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer, responsible for the MH17 investigation, reacted lightly to the acquittal for Poelatov afterwards. “The court looks at the functional perpetrator differently than we do. But when it comes to the evidence about what happened, and the role of the suspects, we are on the same page.”

In the absence of the suspects, the MH17 trial, which began in March 2020 after years of investigation, was not only about retaliation (in addition to life imprisonment, the court also imposed 16 million euros in compensation for the next of kin), but above all about finding the truth. And the court left no doubt on Thursday: there is an “abundance of evidence” that shows that MH17 was shot down with a Russian Book anti-aircraft system from an agricultural field near the hamlet of Pervomajski.

Court president Hendrik Steenhuis paid a lot of attention to the evidence: from photos of the smoke trail left by the rocket to anonymous witness M58 who was present at the launch, from the bowtie-shaped fragmentation particle found in the body of one of the Boeing 777 crew members to taped conversations of the suspects.

The ruling of the court in The Hague was as expected, for Russia it means nothing legally

Vladimir Dzabarov Russian senator from the United Russia party

The court also expressed itself in no uncertain terms about Russia’s role in the conflict in Ukraine. The Kremlin has consistently denied any military involvement. However, the court found on the basis of the file that Moscow had full control over the pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spoke of a “politically motivated outcome” in a response on Thursday.

Moderate joy prevailed on the Dutch side. Prime Minister Mark Rutte emphasized that the judgment in the first instance, “however important”, does not mean the end of the MH17 case. All litigants can appeal.

Proceedings against the Russian government are still pending before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) led by the Netherlands is still looking for other suspects, such as the crew of the Boek and the higher command line in Russia. According to a spokesman for the Public Prosecution Service, the results will be announced next spring.

The rulings send a message to Russia: no amount of lies can escape justice

Dmytro Cooleba Ukrainian foreign minister