THE HAGUE – Dutch prosecutors said yesterday they will not appeal the acquittal of a Russian man over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 as it would be a “great burden” for families.
Oleg Pulatov was found not guilty by a Dutch court on November 17 while Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko were convicted and sentenced to life in absentia.
All 298 people on board the plane were killed when it was shot down by a Russian-made missile fired by Moscow-backed separatists over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, the court ruled.
“An appeal would be a great burden for the next of kin, because they would then remain in uncertainty about the outcome of the criminal case,” the prosecution service said.
The verdict gave families “certainty on a number of important subjects” including Russia’s role in the tragedy, which can now be used in separate civil cases, it said.
The victims of the disaster came from 10 countries, including 196 Dutch, 43 Malaysians and 38 Australians.
The three convicted men, who remain at large, have not appealed within the 14-day deadline and so their convictions are “irrevocable”, the prosecution service added.
Judges found them guilty of murder and bringing down the plane, saying they were responsible for bringing the missile into Ukraine, even if they had not pulled the trigger themselves.
The court also said that Russia was in control of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the separatist group to which the convicted men belonged.
Russia has denied all involvement and slammed the “scandalous” verdict. – AFP, December 2, 2022
