From War Zone to Court of Law: European Court's Verdict Marks a New Chapter for Russia
Strasbourg (The Uttam Hindu): Moscow has faced a major international setback amid the Russia-Ukraine war. Europe's top human rights court said in a historic decision on Wednesday that Russia has grossly violated international laws in Ukraine. Most importantly, the court has also held Russia directly responsible for shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 with a missile in 2014.
This is the first time an international court has blamed Russia for human rights violations in Ukraine during this 2014 plane tragedy and the attacks that have continued since 2022. The court's decision also includes cases such as the kidnapping of Ukrainian children.
On 17 July 2014, Boeing 777 aircraft MH17 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down by a missile while flying over the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board the plane died in this accident. At that time this area of Donetsk was under the control of Russian-backed rebels.
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) of the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine had found in its detailed investigation that the plane was shot down by a Russian-made “BUK” surface-to-air missile system, which was also imported from Russia.
However, Russia has always denied these allegations. Moscow has argued that the attack may have been carried out by the Ukrainian army and has questioned the legitimacy of the investigation process, calling it "politically motivated". Russia has also used its veto power in the United Nations to prevent the investigation of this case from proceeding.
Earlier, in 2022, a Dutch court convicted three Russian citizens and a Ukrainian rebel in absentia and sentenced them to life imprisonment in this case. However, those convicts are still absconding. This latest decision of the European Court has given a new direction to the fight for justice of the families of the victims in this decades-old case.
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