The Netherlands to file lawsuit against Russia over MH17 crash

The Dutch government is planning to file a lawsuit against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, Reuters reports.

In a letter to parliament, the Dutch government explained that it is filing the lawsuit to achieve “truth, justice, and accountability” for all 298 victims killed in the crash (the majority of the victims were Dutch citizens).

While the Netherlands considers Russian responsible for the downing of Flight MH17, Moscow denies having any involvement in the crash.

In June 2019, charges in the case of the downing of Flight MH17 were brought against Russian citizens Igor Girkin (also known as Strelkov), Sergey Dubinsky, and Oleg Pulatov, as well as Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko. The ongoing trial against them began in the Netherlands in March 2020.

In December 2015, Russia passed a law authorizing its Constitutional Court to allow the non-fulfillment of rulings from the European Court of Human Rights. The recently voted upon amendments to the Russian constitution expand this norm, theoretically allowing Russia to opt against implementing certain rulings from various international courts.