MH17 trial: Netherlands files lawsuit against Russia under three articles of European Convention on Human Rights

"At today’s [July 14] briefing at the Ministry of Justice and Security of the Netherlands, representatives of the international Joint Investigation Team member states and countries, whose citizens died in the plane crash, provided detailed information about the Netherlands' lawsuit against Russia and suggested supporting such a step. In particular, countries wishing to join the lawsuit as a third party will be able to do so within 12 weeks after the ECHR Secretariat officially submits the lawsuit to the Russian Federation," Ambassador of Ukraine to the Netherlands Vsevolod Chentsov said in an exclusive comment to an Ukrinform correspondent in The Hague.

He noted that the lawsuit concerned Russia's violation of 2nd, 3rd and 13th articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Article 2 of the Convention stipulates that “everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law.”

Article 3 emphasizes that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Article 13 points out that “everyone whose rights and freedoms as set forth in this Convention are violated shall have an effective remedy before a national authority notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity.”

"The Netherlands refers to Article 13 of the Convention due to the inadequate level of Russia’s cooperation in the investigation into the downing of the plane and, therefore, failure to fulfil its obligations under the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters," the Ambassador said.

As reported, the Netherlands filed a lawsuit against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights over the downing of MH17 flight over the occupied part of Donbas six years ago.

In May 2018, the Netherlands and Australia formally accused Russia of being responsible for the downing of the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet.

On June 19, 2019, the international Joint Investigation Team named four suspects believed to be involved in the transportation and combat use of the Buk missile system, from which MH17 flight had been downed. Three of them are Russians: Igor Girkin (Strelkov), former colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence service and former so-called defense minister of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic”; Sergey Dubinskiy, general (at the time of downing – colonel) of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and head of the so-called “Main Intelligence Directorate of the Donetsk People’s Republic” and Oleg Pulatov, lieutenant colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. The fourth suspect is Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian civilian, who fought on the side of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic.”

In March this year, the District Court of The Hague began its consideration of the case of the downing of flight MH17 in the sky over Donbas.

On July 10, 2020, the Dutch government decided to bring Russia before the European Court of Human Rights for its role in the downing of flight MH17.

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