Beijing time:2022-08-16 05:36
[NTD, Beijing, August 16, 2022]On August 15, local time, a Dutch court announced that it will sentence the four defendants involved in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on November 17, and the four will be charged with murder.
On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed suddenly while flying over eastern Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board, 193 of whom were Dutch. It was the deadliest of the four Malaysia Airlines crashes.
The four accused in the alleged downing of the flight include three Russians and one Ukrainian.
Reuters reported that the four defendants helped provide a missile system to pro-Russian elements in eastern Ukraine, which they used to fire a missile at flight MH17. The plane exploded over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
After nearly five years of investigation, an international joint investigation mission has criminally charged four defendants with murder. During the trial, none of the four defendants appeared in court, and only one Russian defendant, Oleg Pulatov, was represented by a lawyer.
As the victims on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 were mostly Dutch, Dutch prosecutors have asked for life sentences for the four accused.
The Dutch government believes that Russia is responsible for the incident, but Moscow authorities deny any involvement.
It is worth mentioning that four months before the crash, another Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, bound for Beijing, disappeared at the junction of the Malaysian-Vietnamese waters less than an hour after takeoff.
Ten months later, the Malaysian government officially confirmed the flight crash and determined that all 239 people on board were killed, most of whom were Chinese nationals.
The cause of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 remains a mystery.
(Comprehensive report by reporter Luo Tingting/responsible editor: Wen Hui)
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