Russia guilty of shooting down MH17, killing 298 people on board: European human rights court

Europe’s top human rights court delivered damning judgements against Russia on Wednesday, including the ruling that it was Moscow which shot down MH17, killing all passengers, including 38 Australians. The judges at the European Court of Human Rights were delivering rulings on four cases brought by Ukraine and the Netherlands.

On Wednesday, the judges ruled that Russia was responsible for widespread violations of international law. Moscow was apprehended for shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, back in 2014, along with murder, torture, rape, destruction of civilian infrastructure and kidnapping of Ukrainian children after it full-scale invasion of 2022, The Guardian reported.

The decision was read out in a packed courtroom in Strasbourg. The court’s president, Mattias Guyomar, said that Russian forces engaged in “manifestly unlawful” conduct in the July 2014 attack on the flight. “The court agreed that the evidence suggested that the missile had been intentionally fired at flight MH17, most likely in the mistaken belief that it had been a military aircraft,” the court said in a statement.

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“It was not necessary for the court to decide exactly who had fired the missile, since Russia was responsible for the acts of the Russian armed forces and the armed separatists." “The court found that no measures had been taken by Russia to accurately identify military targets, in breach of the principles of distinction and precautions," Guyomar furthered.

Russia reacts

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has maintained that it would ignore what it described as a “largely symbolic judgment”. Ukraine , on the other hand, lauded the court, calling the ruling “historic and unprecedented.” Kyiv went on to call the verdict an “undeniable victory” for the embattled country.

The 501-page ruling noted that Russia’s refusal to participate in the proceedings also was a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, the treaty that underpins the court. When asked about the proceedings before the judgment was read, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the case altogether. “We won’t abide by it, we consider it void," he said at that time.

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Meanwhile, families of the victims of the devastating crash saw the judgment as an important milestone in their 11-year quest for justice. Thomas Schansman, whose 18-year-old son, Quinn, was aboard the jetliner, said the judgment made it clear who caused the disaster. Russia “is responsible for killing my son”, Schansman said.

The tragic story of MH17

On July 17, 2017, a Boeing 777 aircraft was shot down by a Russian-made Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by separatist rebels loyal to Moscow. All 298 passengers and crew onboard lost their lives in the tragic incident.

The victims of the crash came from 17 countries and included 198 Dutch nationals, 43 Malaysians, 38 Australians and 10 from the UK. In the Wednesday ruling, the judge found that Russia’s refusal to acknowledge its involvement in the plane crash violated international law.

The court also charged Russia for failing to properly investigate the disaster “significantly aggravated the suffering” of the relatives and friends of the dead. “Russia never took any opportunity to tell the truth,” Schansman said. In May this year, the UN’s aviation agency also found Russia responsible for the crash.

The UN body gave the decision after Australia and the Netherlands launched legal proceedings against Russia under Article 84 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. It is pertinent to note that the ECHR is an important part of the Council of Europe, the continent’s foremost human rights institution.

The court’s governing body expelled Moscow in 2022, after it launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine. However, the court still has the authority to deal with cases against Russia dating from before its expulsion and, legally, the country is still obliged to participate in the proceedings.

The European court will now rule on financial compensation at a later date, but Russia’s departure leaves little hope that damages will ever be collected. It is also important to note that the decisions in Strasbourg are separate from a criminal prosecution in the Netherlands in which two Russians and a Ukrainian rebel were convicted in absentia of multiple murders for their roles in the downing of Flight MH17.