Photo: Sem van der Wal ANP/Agence France-Presse Relatives attend a memorial ceremony to mark the tenth anniversary of the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 17, at Dudok Park in Hilversum, central Netherlands, July 17, 2024.
Julie Capelle – Agence France-Presse and Charlotte Van Ouwerkerk – Agence France-Presse in Vijfhuizen and The Hague
Posted at 11:26 a.m.
- Europe
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof pledged on Wednesday in front of victims' relatives, moved and dressed in black, to continue tracking down against all odds those responsible for the crash of flight MH17, ten years old after the tragedy.
Dutch justice sentenced in absentia in 2022 three men to life in prison for their role in the crash: two Russians and a Ukrainian. But Moscow has refused to extradite suspects and has always denied any involvement.
And last year, international investigators suspended their investigations, believing that there was no There was not enough evidence to pursue more suspects.
“We remain united in our fight for justice. This is what drives us,” Dick Schoof nevertheless declared in front of hundreds of relatives and dignitaries.
The families of the 298 people killed were gathered at a memorial site near Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, lined with sunflowers, as was the Ukrainian field strewn with bodies and debris after the crash.
The plane took off from the Netherlands on a beautiful summer day on July 17, 2014, heading to Kuala Lumpur.
A few hours later, the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was shot down by a Russian-made missile over territory held by pro-Russian separatists. Everyone on board was killed.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“We all know that a conviction is not the same as someone being behind bars,” Schoof said, adding that “justice requires that we be prepared” to fight “for the long haul.”
“And we are. We have the time, the patience and the perseverance. “This is my message to the perpetrators and my promise to their loved ones,” he said.
Tears
Many of the relatives were in tears as the names of the victims, including 196 Dutch, 43 Malaysians and 38 Australians, were read out one by one.
The victims' families have little hope of ever seeing the perpetrators behind bars.
“I don't think those responsible will serve their sentences,” Evert van Zijtveld told AFP.
This man who lost his daughter Frédérique, aged 19, his son Robert-Jan, 18, and his in-laws in the crash, was having “a difficult day” on Wednesday.
International investigators concluded that there were “strong indications” that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the supply of the missile that downed the plane.
Moscow vehemently rejected the 2022 court verdict, calling it “political” and “scandalous.”
“We have not been involved in the investigation and our attitude towards these conclusions is therefore well known,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
The The European Union, for its part, once again called on Moscow to “accept its responsibility for this tragedy.”
“Russia’s responsibility for this atrocity is inevitable,” said his side asserted on X Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“All those guilty of this and other Russian war crimes will undoubtedly hear the verdicts they deserve,” he added.
But the three men convicted in the Netherlands refused to participate in the legal proceedings and deny any role in the tragedy.
And with Moscow's refusal to extradite any suspect, citing Russian law, it is unlikely that the convicts will ever serve their sentences.
“Not completely free”
“The invasion of Ukraine and the escalation of the war make it really hard to believe that any of them will be arrested any time soon,” said said Evert van Zijtveld.
There were “ten years of endless procedures in which the responsible State only hindered” the investigation, raised Piet Ploeg, president of the victims’ families association. “Ten years of fighting against Russia's denials and total indifference to the suffering caused,” he added.
Driekske Bakker, 71, who lost her brother and sister-in-law in the tragedy, said she was “glad that at least there was a trial and that they (the condemned) could not leave Russia”.
They are “so not totally free”, she told AFP.