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Read, Debate: Engage.
| topic: | Human Rights |
|---|---|
| located: | Ukraine, Netherlands, Russia |
| editor: | Igor Serebryany |
Three Russians and one Ukrainian have formally been summoned to the court in the Netherlands as accomplices in war crimes during the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
Former "defense minister" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Igor Girkin, Lieutenant General Sergei Dubinsky, Colonel Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian national Leonid Kharchenko have been accused of the downing of a Malaysian aircraft in July 2014.
Kharchenko is a Ukrainian national nominally only, because he resides in the territory under separatists control and considers himself "a citizen" of the "Donetsk Republic".
Dutch and international investigators suspect the four of delivering the Buk anti-aircraft systems to the frontline. The MH-17 flight was hit by a Buk missile over the town of Snezhnoye in Donbass.
Last year, the Dutch prosecutors also named Vladimir Tsemakh as another suspect. Tsemakh served as a commander of an anti-aircraft unit in Snezhnoye in July 2014.
In April 2019, Tsemakh was abducted from his home to Kiev by Ukrainian agents. In September he was exchanged for Ukrainian POWs with Russia and returned to Donetsk region.
The court hearings over the case are due to start on March, 9. Neither Russia nor Malaysia had been allowed to participate in the investigation.
Reached by phone in Moscow, Igor Girkin said he was going to ignore any subpoenas from the Hague. "Thankfully, I'm not an idiot. It is utter foolishness to react in any way to the subpoenas sent by enemies. Only a complete fool can believe in 'justice' in such court hearings", he said.
Girkin believes that his former subordinate Oleg Pulatov has been "naive to the highest degree".
Earlier this week, Oleg Pulatov said he was going to arrive at the Hague to participate in the legal process. In 2014, he worked as a chief of intelligence of separatist forces. "Have Pulatov still been my subordinate, I'd put him in jail for such statements. He demonstrates stupidity incompatible with his rank and position", Girkin said. He added that "unfortunately" the two men haven't met each other since 2014.
The four men summoned to the Hague have no reason to be upset, says a human rights activist from Donetsk Oxana Shkoda.
"They had been issued an international arrest warrant five years ago. The latest subpoenas change nothing in their immediate legal situation", she stressed.
She believes that the West uses Girkin and his "accomplices" as scapegoats "for having ground to introduce more sanctions on Russia".
"None of them are under threat to be extradited to the Hague, simply because Russia doesn't extradite its citizens. Besides, Moscow doesn't recognize the authority of the international investigative team because Russia hasn't been invited to participate. This is why whatever the investigators say and do, this is nothing but a political theatre," Shkoda says.
The recent announcement of the Hague court remains legally void, an analyst in the Center for Political Conjuncture Dmitry Abzalov agrees.
"The Dutch don't insist on the extradition of the suspects, while court hearings 'in absentia' will not satisfy the plaintiffs - relatives of the killed passengers. Currently, it remains unclear what the next steps could be or even if the hearings will start on March 9. At the moment, there isn't enough evidence to open the court procedure," he says.
