THE HAGUE, May 12. /TASS/. The Netherlands and Australia have demanded the Council he International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) oblige Russia to begin talks with them on the crash of flight MH17 in 2014, the Dutch foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The Netherlands and Australia request the ICAO Council to impose on the Russian Federation to enter into negotiations with the Netherlands and Australia on this matter and to supervise this process," the documents reads.
According to the Dutch government, the ICAO Council ruled earlier in the day that Russia "is responsible for the downing of flight MH17 and has thus violated the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation" of 1944.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Vedkamp hailed the ICAO Council’s decision and noted that it must now look at potential indemnification measures.
TASS has referred an official inquiry to the organization asking it comment of this ruling. No response has been received so far.
In June 2024, Russia stopped participating in the ICAO Council's dispute with Australia and the Netherlands over the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 MH17 crash case. The Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that "Russia does not recognize the council's authority to consider the Australian and Dutch fake allegations, as well as any decisions it will make in relation to them."
Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk Region of Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing 298 people from ten countries. A joint investigative team (JIT) comprising representatives from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine, was established in order to carry out a criminal investigation into the crash. The case was heard at the Hague District Court. In November 2022, the court found three people guilty in the case and sentenced them in absentia to life imprisonment. They were former militia leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Igor Girkin, also known as Igor Strelkov, and his subordinates Sergey 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 due to lack of evidence. Russian officials have repeatedly doubted the JIT’s findings, pointing to the groundlessness of the prosecution’s arguments and reluctance to take into account conclusions from Moscow’s probe.
ICAO, a specialized agency of the United Nations, has 193 member states. The ruling on the MH17 case was taken through voting, with its results not being made public fully.