On July 17, 2014, a passenger plane of Malaysian Airlines was shot down by Russian missiles and nearly 300 people were killed on board.The following are four key issues on this incident, and many of them have not been answered.
At the time of the incident, Flight MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, and was hit by missiles over the Basan area in the eastern part of Ukraine.At that time, Russian -controlled armed organizations were fighting the Ukrainian army.Air crash leads to 283 passengers, including 80 children, and all 15 crew members.
The Dutch authorities launched a criminal investigation on the crash. They asked dozens of witnesses for many years and checked hundreds of evidence.Russia denied responsibility for air crash, but investigators discovered the relationship between the incident with the Russian authorities.
The following are several key issues that focus on this fatal air crash.
Who was found to be related to the crash?
In 2022, the Hague courts determined that the three were related to the crash of the passenger plane.
They are former officials of the Russian Federal Security Agency (FSB), and they are also a member of the "Donetsk People's Republic" government member. This is a separatist region supported by Russia in eastern Ukraine.
Igor Girkin was the former "Ministry of Defense" of the "Donetsk People's Republic".Leonid Kravchenko worked for Dopence.
There are also fourth people who are also accused, but the court later believed that there was no sufficient evidence to convict him.
The convicted three were sentenced to life imprisonment, but none of them appeared in court.
Although Gilkin and Dobesky are both Russian citizens, Moscow did not cooperate with the international community's investigation of crash.
Igor Gilkin was finally caught in Russia, but was prosecuted for completely different crimes.
The former Federal Security Bureau official accused Russia's military leadership inadequate in lack of invasion of Ukraine. In January 2024, he was charged with extremism and was sentenced to four years in prison.Shortly after the start of the invasion in February 2022, criticizing the Russian army can constitute criminal crimes.
Who launched the missile?
The Dutch -led investigators studied video and photo evidence and checked hundreds of interceptions.These evidence helped them determine that the aircraft was shot down by the "Buk" (BUK) air defense missiles launched from the "Donetsk People's Republic" separated molecular control area.The launch vehicle is provided by Russia.
At the same time, the court pointed out that none of the three criminals pressed the missile launch button.
Bellingcat website confirmed that the "mountain hair" launch vehicle involved in the case belongs to the Russian 53rd Air Defense Brigade Third Battalion -this reduces the scope of potential criminals to about 30 people.Three to four of them may have been operating the launch vehicle on July 17, 2014.
Dutch investigators asked the Russian authorities to inquire about Colonel Sergei Muchkaev.Moscow complained that he was deprived of the right to investigate the case and did not respond to these requests.
Another person who appeared in the interception was Andrey Burlaka, General of the Russian Federal Security Agency.Call evidence shows that Bullaka is likely to participate in the work that shifted the "mountain hair" system from Russia to Wudong.
BBC has determined that in the active stage of the conflict of Wudong from 2014 to 2015, General Burlaka was awarded the Russian highest medal- "Russian hero".
What role did Putin play?
In February 2023, a few months after the three criminals were sentenced, investigators said that Russian President Vladimir Putin directly participated in the Wudong conflict and shot down the passenger plane incident.
As evidence, they took out two intercepted calls, which mentioned that the decision to launch the "mountain hair" air defense missile to Ukraine was made by "the highest figure".Essence
At the press conference, the investigator of the joint investigation team of the Dutch leader said: "There are strong signs that Putin directly participated in the decision -making of the 'Shamo -榉' missile, but these signs have not reached complete and irrefutable refutationHigh standards for evidence. "
They also stated that according to Dutch law, President Putin's Russian head head of state provided him with exemption.During his tenure, the country's courts could not judge him.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented at the time that Russia was not allowed to participate in the investigation, which "did not help the objectivity of the investigation."
How to compensate the victim?
In 2020, the Dutch government appealed to the European Human Rights Court (EUROPEAN COURT of Human Rights), demanding that Russia is responsible for Russia's death of 298 passengers and crew members of the MH17 flights and united investigations.The case is still under trial.
The Dutch government claims that Russia plays a key role in this disaster, and the Kremlin has continued to carry out rumoring activities on a crash, which seriously violated the citizenship of the relatives of the victims.
Moscow continued to deny all the allegations it proposed and actively used the MH17 incident to propagate.It claims that the plane was shot down by the Ukrainian army, and even claimed that passengers on the plane had died before being shot down.
If Russia loses the case in the European Human Rights Court of Human Rights, the court may ask Russia to pay compensation to the victims.But at the actual level, such a judgment is likely to be symbolic.
Soon after Russia began to fully invade Ukraine, the country's parliament passed a law on the "non -European Human Rights Court" -the law came into effect on March 15, 2022.
At the same time, there is no time limit for compensation for the victims of flights from flights in MH17.At some point in the future, different governments in Russia may make political decisions and reach a certain solution.
