The court in The Hague found Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko guilty of the MH17 disaster

On November 17, the court in The Hague announced the verdict in the case of the crash of flight MH17. Igor Girkin, Serhiy Dubinsky and Leonid Kharchenko were found guilty in absentia of the death of 298 passengers of the Malaysian Boeing 777 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The fourth suspect, Oleg Pulatov, was declared innocent – his involvement in the tragedy was not proven. The court decided that the culprits can file lawsuits of relatives of the dead - there are more than 300 such lawsuits.

The total amount of compensation to the relatives of the victims is estimated at more than 16 million euros, it must be paid in full.

During the hearings, it was proven that the plane was shot down by the "Buk" anti-aircraft missile complex launched from the side of occupied Pervomaiskyi.

As the presiding judge stated, this is indicated by the photo of the missile trail in the sky, satellite images of the missile launch site, witness statements and the expertise of the Dutch and Belgian authorities. After the launch of the missile, the air defense system was taken back to Russia.

It was also stated in court that the target of the missile launch was a military aircraft. A civilian Boeing was shot down by mistake. The accused in the MH17 case were not a single group, as the prosecution claimed, but were related to the use of the Buk.

It is impossible to establish the actions of the air defense system crew, and it is also impossible to find out who gave the command to launch the missile, the judge said. According to the investigation, Dubinskyi was involved in the organization of transportation of the "Buk", Pulatov - intelligence and creation of a safe corridor for transportation, Girkin - installation of air defense systems, as well as the supply of weapons and negotiations with responsible persons in Moscow.

At the same time, a large amount of evidence provided by the Russian company Almaz-Antey, which is the manufacturer of the Buk air defense system, was falsified, the court said.

In addition, the court qualified the war in Donbas, which was going on in 2014, as an international armed conflict and recognized that the Russian Federation had full control over the terrorists of the DNR since May 2014. Moscow controlled all operations of the militants - there is a lot of evidence, for example, intercepted telephone conversations.

The prosecutor in the MH17 case, Digna van Butzelaar, spoke about the further plans of the investigation, "Grati" reports. "After the verdict, the parties have two weeks to file an appeal. This is only the first step in this court case. The investigation is still ongoing as to who was on the Buk crew and pressed the button. And the investigation is also ongoing as to who allowed the Buk to be delivered to the east of Ukraine," she said.

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