DISINFO: Dutch court recognised the conflict in Donbas in 2014 as non-international
SUMMARY
The Hague court called the conflict in Ukraine non-international. This is a non-international armed conflict, said Hendrik Steenhuis, Judge of the District Court of the Hague, announcing the decision in the case of the crash of flight MH17.
RESPONSE
False pro-Kremlin narrative.
In reality, the Dutch court found that, since April 2014, there had been an armed conflict between the Ukrainian army and separatist formations, controlled by Russia, reports Dutch Courts´ website Rechtspraak.
"One of these groups fought under the name of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). Many indications suggest that since mid-May 2014, the DPR has been effectively controlled by the Russian Federation. As a result, the Russian Federation became so involved in the conflict with Ukraine that it became an international conflict. In an international conflict, the use of weapons may be permitted under certain circumstances. Soldiers from belligerent countries may invoke immunity (combatant immunity) and not be prosecuted. But because the Russian Federation and the suspects deny Russian involvement to this day, the DNR fighters cannot be seen as part of the Russian military. In this case, they cannot be granted immunity from prosecution", summarises Rechtspraak.
The Dutch Court of The Hague sentenced three suspects to life imprisonment for their involvement in the downing of flight MH17 on 17 July 2014, which led to the tragic loss of 298 lives. Suspects have been tried in absentia.
PACE President Tiny Kox has made the following statement: "The Hague District Court in the Netherlands has just ruled on the State responsibility of the Russian Federation under the European Convention on Human Rights and other international conventions concerning the downing over Eastern Ukraine, on 17 July 2014, of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur".
On the 24th of May 2018, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) announced its conclusion that the BUK TELAR used to shoot down MH17 came from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, a unit of the Russian armed forces from Kursk in the Russian Federation.
Pro-Kremlin media advanced many mutually exclusive conspiracy theories on the downing of MH17 and many of them referred to a Spanish dispatcher named Carlos who saw a Ukrainian attack aircraft which hit MH17. The dispatcher existed only on Twitter, later his account turned into Lyudmila Lopatyshkina, as The Insider found out. See also Catch Carlos if you can for more details.