(Badhoevedorp) A Dutch court on Thursday sentenced three men to life in absentia for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, amid rising tensions over the Russian invasion.
“The court imposes a life sentence” on Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, convicted of murder and having played a role in the destruction of the plane, said the presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis.
PHOTO PHIL NIJHUIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis (second from left).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the Dutch court’s “important decision” on Thursday.
“An important decision by the court in The Hague,” Zelensky said on Twitter. “Punishment for all Russian atrocities – both yesterday and today – will be inevitable,” he added.