It was a bright summer day on June 17, 2014, when a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with 298 people on board took off from an airport in Amsterdam.
The plane was headed for Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, but it never arrived.
Over eastern Ukraine it was hit by a BUK missile and crashed. All passengers lost their lives.
It has been ten years and no one has been arrested or jailed for the shooting, although a Dutch trial has named three people as responsible – or co-responsible.
They are the two Russians Igor Girkin and Sergej Dubinsky and the Ukrainian Leonid Khartchenko.
All three have refused to participate in the trial and say they have nothing to do with the shooting.
In 2022, the court in the Netherlands sentenced them to life imprisonment in absentia.
They are believed to be in Russia, which will not extradite them. Russia has called the verdict “scandalous” and politically motivated.
The men were accused of transporting the BUK missile from a Russian base to the launch site. They were not charged with having launched the missile.
Last year, an international investigation into the shooting was suspended because there was not enough evidence to prosecute more people, writes AFP.
196 of the plane passengers who died were Dutch.
On Wednesday, several hundred relatives of the victims as well as representatives from the Netherlands’ new government are expected to gather for a memorial service to remember the victims in a memorial park that has been established for them.
AFP writes that the names of all the victims will be read out. In addition to the 196 Dutch, there are 43 Malays, 38 Australians and victims from ten other countries.
A memorial event is also expected in the Parliament of Australia.
AFP has spoken to the Dutchman Evert van Zijtveld, who lost his 19-year-old daughter, his 18-year-old son and his parents-in-law during the shooting.
He doubts that the three people sentenced to life in prison will ever be behind bars.
– The invasion of Ukraine and the escalation of the war have made it very difficult to believe that any of them will be arrested soon, he says, referring to Russia’s attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The new Prime Minister of the Netherlands seems to think much the same.
– After all, we have not been able to put anyone behind bars, says Dick Schoof to the radio station NOS.
/ritzau/
Source: www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk
