Dutch court finds two Russians, one Ukrainian separatist guilty over downing of flight MH17

A fourth suspect, a Russian, was acquitted by the court.

MH17 was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, when it was shot out of the sky over territory held by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.

All 298 people on board were killed in the incident, including 15 crew members and 283 passengers from 17 countries. The downing of the jet happened in the early phase of a conflict between pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian forces.

The four suspects, including Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian separatist Leonid Kharchenko, were put on trial in absentia over two years at Schiphol Judicial Complex in Badhoevedorp, the Netherlands. Only Pulatov was acquitted.

The Dutch court's verdict comes nearly nine months after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and weeks after Moscow sought to illegally annex four Ukrainian regions, including the area where prosecutors say the missile that brought down MH17 was fired from eight years earlier.

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