HAARLEM, July 16 — A former deputy public prosecutor who led the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 case said the three men sentenced to life in prison for murdering 298 passengers will be put behind bars if they leave Russia.
Digna van Boetzelaer, North-Holland head prosecutor, said the Netherlands government never asked for the extradition of the trio as Russia does not extradite its citizens.
“But, whenever they (accused) travel out of Russia, they can be apprehended and brought to the Netherlands and will be in jail. But also, when there is another regime, we can have talks with that regime on how we are going to finalise this. We will see where this brings us, but it will not go away,” said the prosecutor.
She said this to Malaysian press during the MH17 visitors’ programme, which was held at the North-Holland Public Prosecutor’s Office here.
On November 17, 2022, the Hague District Court sentenced three former Russian intelligence agents — Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinskiy and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko — to life in prison after finding them guilty of charges of causing the crash of MH17 and the killing of all 298 passengers.
However, the court acquitted another Russian, Oleg Pulatov, of the same charges.
Recalling challenges during the investigation, Boetzelaer said the complexity of the investigation was due to the ongoing war in Ukraine and the abundance of misinformation on the internet at the time.
“The incident happened in a place where we couldn’t go. It wasn’t freely accessible. There was a war going on, so that made it more complex to carry out the investigation,” she said.
Boetzelaer said eyewitnesses confirmed the BUK-Telar used to shoot down the flight was driving through the streets, and two other witnesses said they saw the launch of the missile.
On July 17, 2014, MH17 was downed by a BUK missile while flying over conflict-hit eastern Ukraine.
The victims were from 17 countries, including 198 Dutch citizens, 43 Malaysians, 38 Australians, and 10 from the United Kingdom.
— Bernama
