On March 9, the trial against four persons charged with murder in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (designated as MH17) began at the Hague. Dutch prosecutors say the three Russians and one Ukrainian on trial (in absentia) had arranged for the Russian missile system that was used to shoot down MH17 on July 17, 2014, over Ukraine’s Donbas region. The names of all 298 people killed that day were read out by a prosecutor, and the presiding judge, Hendrik Steenhuis, said in his opening remarks, “Many people have long waited for this day.”
Russia, as expected, continues to deny any involvement in the murders of the civilian aircraft’s passengers and crew. In fact, it has pushed all manner of propaganda about alternate accounts of what happened on that fateful day. The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group notes: “Over the first two days after the disaster, Russian Internet trolls posted a record-breaking 65,000 tweets trying to blame Ukraine for the disaster.” The KHPG also reminds us that “Russia used its power of veto in the U.N. Security Council on July 29, 2014, to block an international tribunal into the downing of MH17.”