ADutch court convicted three men and acquitted one on Thursday over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 above Ukraine in 2014, as tensions soar over Russia’s invasion eight years later.
Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko “are found guilty” of murder and intentionally causing an aircraft to crash, while Russian Oleg Pulatov was not guilty, head judge Hendrik Steenhuis said.
The first three were sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia. …
The court ruled there was “ample evidence” to show the plane was brought down by the missile, and that it was fired from a field in eastern Ukraine in an area controlled by the pro-Moscow Donetsk People’s Republic, which was fighting against Kyiv’s forces.
The proof included a photo of a smoke trail, witness testimony, satellite images, telephone intercepts, video images, and shrapnel.
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