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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... omb-attackRutte hopes for 'a very small cell' for convicted MH-17 perpetrator
Outgoing Prime Minister Rutte
responds to the conviction and prison sentence for Igor Girkin.
The Russian nationalist was sentenced to life in prison for the downing of flight MH17,
but is now imprisoned in Russia for openly criticizing Putin.
Rutte hopes for 'a very small cell' with 'little water and bread'.
According to Rutte, the Netherlands continues to try to ensure that the perpetrators serve their sentences and to hold Russia accountable.
'We will not stop.'
January 25, 2024
Thu 25 Jan 2024 14.05 CET
In Moscow, a court sentenced Igor Girkin,
a former battlefield commander of Russian proxy forces in east Ukraine
who was convicted by a Dutch court over the shooting down of flight MH17,
to four years in jail on extremism charges prompted by his criticism of the Russian war effort in Ukraine.
Girkin, who also goes by the nom de guerre Strelkov,
was a leading military commander of the pro-Russian forces who occupied eastern Ukrainian cities beginning in 2014.
His armed intervention backed by Russia marked the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine.
A former officer for Russia’s FSB security service,
Girkin was arrested last summer in his apartment and charged with “calls for extremism”
after months of public criticism in which he accused Putin
of failing to pursue the war in Ukraine with enough vigour.
His arrest and subsequent jailing is seen as a sign that the Kremlin has decided
to clamp down on any dissent, even among those who support Moscow’s invasion.
Girkin was previously found guilty in absentia by a Dutch court of the murder of 298 people onboard flight MH17,
the plane shot down while flying over east Ukraine in July 2014.
The Dutch court gave him a life sentence for his role in sending a Buk surface-to-air missile system
controlled by Russia to a field near the village of Pervomaisky from where it fired on the passenger jet.
Russia has been accused of harbouring Girkin.
Piet Ploeg, who heads a foundation representing Dutch MH17 victims,
said he had mixed feelings over Girkin’s sentencing on Thursday.
“It feels very double – he is jailed but not for the right reasons.
He should be in a Dutch prison for his role in the MH17 shoot-down, and not for voicing his opinion,”
Ploeg, whose brother, sister-in-law and nephew were killed in the MH17 crash, told the Guardian.
“Unfortunately, he might never face the justice he deserves in the Netherlands.”
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