The decision on the MH17 case was taken by a vote, the results of which have not been fully disclosed

HAAG, 12 May. The Netherlands and Australia have asked the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to commit Russia to open negotiations with them on the 2014 Flight MH17 disaster, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"The Netherlands and Australia request the ICAO Council to instruct the Russian Federation to enter into negotiations with the Netherlands and Australia on this matter and to oversee the process," the documents state. According to the Dutch government, the ICAO Council had previously ruled that Russia "was responsible for the downing of flight MH17 in violation of the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation". Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Vedkamp welcomed the ICAO Council's decision, noting that it must now look into possible compensation measures.

In June 2024, Russia ceased to participate in the ICAO Council dispute with Australia and the Netherlands over the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 MH17 crash. The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that "Russia does not recognise the competence of the Council to consider the Australian and Dutch false allegations, as well as any decisions it takes in relation to them". Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on 17 July 2014, killing 298 people from ten countries. A Joint Investigation Team (JIT) comprising representatives from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine has been established to conduct a criminal investigation into the crash.

The case was heard by the District Court in The Hague. In November 2022, the court found three persons guilty in the case and sentenced them to life imprisonment in absentia. They were the former Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) militia commander Igor Girkin, also known as Igor Strelkov, and his subordinates Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Leonid Kharchenko. Oleg Pulatov, the fourth defendant and the only one whose interests were represented by a team of lawyers, was acquitted for lack of evidence. Russian officials have repeatedly questioned the JIT's conclusions, pointing to the unsubstantiated nature of the prosecution's arguments and its unwillingness to take into account the findings of the Moscow probe. ICAO, a UN specialised agency, has 193 member states. The decision on the MH17 case was taken by a vote, the results of which have not been fully disclosed.

TASS/gnews.cz-jav