The District Court of The Hague found two Russian citizens and one Ukrainian - Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, and Leonid Kharchenko - guilty of the crash of the passenger liner of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, resulting in the death of 298 people.

Another defendant, Russian Oleg Pulatov, was found not guilty by the court.

This decision was announced by presiding judge Hendrick Steinhaus at the final court session at the Schiphol Judicial Complex on Thursday. The hearings in the case lasted two and a half years, starting on March 9, 2020.

In particular, charges were brought under two articles of the Dutch Criminal Code: for causing the crash of flight MH17, which killed 298 passengers (Article168) and for the murder of 298 passengers of flight MH17 (Article 289). The prosecutor's office demanded a sentence of life imprisonment.

The judge announced that Pulatov is innocent of both facts, according to which he was suspected. Therefore, the prosecutor's office's demand (to find him guilty) will be rejected.

In relation to Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko, the court recognized that the charges against them were legitimate and evidentiary. Steinhaus said that they jointly led to the crash of the plane with the danger of life for others and the death of 298 people – they are guilty of death 298 times. According to the judge, this is legal and evidentiary. The court ruled that Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko are found guilty.