The European Union (EU) has reiterated its support to seek justice for the victims of the crash of flight MH17 and their families.
“The European Union reiterates its full support for all efforts to establish the truth, achieving justice for the 298 victims of the downing of Flight MH17 and their next of kin and holding those responsible to account, in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2166,” the Council of the EU said in a statement released on the ninth anniversary of the downing on July 17, 2023.
On June 23, 2023, the EU listed two individuals who were actively involved in military maneuvers against Ukraine since the occupation of Crimea in 2014. In November 2022, District Court Judge of The Hague, the Netherlands, Hendrik Steenhuis sentenced three people, including the EU’s listed individuals, associated with the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER and acquitted one suspect of all charges.
“The European Union emphasizes that the evidence presented by the Joint Investigative Team in the proceedings before the Dutch District Court and the European Court of Human Rights makes it clear the BUK installation used to bring down Flight MH17 belonged beyond doubt to the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” the statement continued.
The Council of the EU also noted that the European Court on Human Rights (ECHR) confirmed Russia’s involvement in shooting down the aircraft in Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia case in January 2023.
The United Nations (UN) International Court of Justice (ICJ) also held two hearings in June 2023, inviting representatives of Ukraine and Russia to comment on the case concerning the “Application of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (ICSFT) and of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Ukraine v. Russian Federation)”.
In its hearing round on June 6, 2023, a Ukrainian representative called Russia a “terrorist state”, while on June 14, 2023, a lawyer representing the current aggressor country called the accusations that Russia supplied the BUK systems that were used to down MH17 “fiction”.