Russia said on Thursday that a Dutch court’s decision to convict two former Russian intelligence agents and a Ukrainian separatist leader for the downing of the Malaysian airliner “neglected impartiality”. All 298 on board were killed. Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said those remarks by Russia, which invaded Ukraine nine months ago, were “absolutely despicable” and completely out of touch with reality. “Russia itself is violating international laws in every way. We cannot let this go… and we must show that we respect the rule of law and that we have an independent judiciary,” Hoekstra told Dutch newspaper AD. Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, as fighting raged between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces, a precursor to this year’s conflict. In its ruling, the court said there was no doubt the plane had been shot down by a Russian missile system and that Russia had “total control” over separatist forces in the region since mid-May 2014. Reporting by Bart Meijer and Stephanie van den Berg Editing by Mark Potter and Mark Heinrich Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
