DISINFO: The ICJ has effectively sided with Russia in the case of the MH17 crash
SUMMARY
The United Nations International Court of Justice has effectively sided with Russia in the case of the MH17 crash. The Dutch Court politicised the trial and did not take into account the heavy evidence of Russia's innocence and Ukraine's guilt.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation about downing of flight MH17 and attempt to discredit the Joint Investigative Team (JIT) and the criminal trial.
In November 2022, a Dutch court sentenced two Russians and a Ukrainian in absentia to life imprisonment for their role in the disaster.
The three men convicted were former Russian intelligence agents Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian separatist leader. The three were all found to have helped to arrange the transport into Ukraine of the Russian military BUK missile system that was used to shoot down the plane, though they were not the ones that physically pulled the trigger.
The verdict of the court published on 17 November 2022 was based on strong pieces of evidence and alternative scenarios were excluded based on the evidence.
The Court in its ruling stated that there is no doubt that the MH17 was hit by a Buk missile fired from a farm field near Pervomaiskyi in Ukraine. This field was located in separatist-controlled territory. "This is clear from photographs of a smoke trail in the sky, statements by a protected witness, satellite images, intercepted telephone conversations and transmission mast data, photographs and videos of a Buk TELAR being brought in and removed, and examination of fragments in the remains of a crew member and in the truss and the groove of the aircraft. Investigation in the Netherlands and abroad has not revealed any traces of evidence tampering. Alternative scenarios, for example that the Buk missile was fired from a different area, are ruled out based on the evidence," stated in the final verdict.
The ICJ did not side with Russia. On the contrary on 31 January 2024 judges at the top UN court found that Russia violated elements of a UN anti-terrorism treaty, but declined to rule on allegations brought by Kyiv that Moscow was responsible for the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The ICJ found that under the anti-terrorism treaty, only allegations that related to the funding of terrorism could be considered, not the alleged supply of weapons and specifically the surface-to-air rocket used to shoot passenger jet MH17 out of the sky.
During the hearing, the ICJ found that Russia had violated the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism by failing to investigate people who had allegedly funded pro-Russian separatist groups in eastern Ukraine.
The judges ordered Russia to investigate plausible allegations of terrorism funding in Ukraine under the treaty.
Read more disinformation cases about the downing of the flight MH17.