Skip to main content

Radio Espial - Episode 24: MH17 - Trial & Verdict


Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian forces on 17 July 2014, while flying over eastern Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed. Contact with the aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, was lost when it was about 50 km (31 miles) from the Ukraine–Russia border, and wreckage from the aircraft fell near Hrabove in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, 40 km (25 miles) from the border.

The shoot-down occurred during the war in Donbas over territory controlled by Russian separatist forces. The responsibility for investigation was delegated to the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) and the Dutch-led joint investigation team (JIT), who in 2016 reported that the airliner had been downed by a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine. The JIT found that the Buk that was used originated from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Federation and had been transported from Russia on the day of the crash, fired from a field in a rebel-controlled area and the launch system returned to Russia afterwards.

The findings by the DSB and JIT were consistent with the earlier claims by American and German intelligence sources and claims by the Ukrainian government. On the basis of the JIT's conclusions, the governments of the Netherlands and Australia held Russia responsible for the deployment of the Buk installation and began pursuing legal remedies in May 2018. The Russian government denied involvement in the shooting down of the airplane, and its account of how the aircraft was shot down has varied over time. Coverage in Russian media has also differed from that in other countries.

In November 2022, following a trial in absentia, two Russians and a Ukrainian separatist were found guilty of murdering all 298 people onboard flight MH17 by shooting it down. The Dutch court also ruled that Russia was in control of the separatist forces fighting in eastern Ukraine at the time.

 

Comments

POPULAR POSTS

THE VANISHING OF MARY BOYLE

Mary Boyle (born 14 June 1970) was a six-year-old Irish girl who disappeared on the County Donegal-County Fermanagh border on 18th March 1977. To date, her disappearance is the longest missing child case in the Republic of Ireland. The investigation into her disappearance has been beset by allegations of political intervention and police incompetence. While arrests were made over many years, nobody has ever been charged in connection with her disappearance. Mary Boyle was last seen at 3:30 pm on 18 March 1977 near her grandparents' rural farm in Cashelard, near Ballyshannon, County Donegal. The family, including Mary's mother Ann, father Charlie, older brother Paddy, and twin sister Ann, had gone to Mary's maternal grandparents' house on St Patrick's Day from their home in Kincasslagh in The Rosses, further up the coast. They stayed at the grandparents home overnight into the day of her disappearance. In total, there were eleven people at the household gathering, si...

JO JO DULLARD CASE UPDATE: Recent Arrest & Searches

On the morning of November 11th, 2024, Gardai case investigators served an arrest warrant on a man aged 55 under suspicion of the murder of Jo Jo Dullard who disappeared 29 years ago. The man was detained for questioning at Kildare Garda Station under the provisions of section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. No charges have yet been brought forward and he is the first suspect to be arrested in the case. The Dullard family were made aware of the arrest shortly after 7 am this morning. (He was later released without charge the following day and a file is being prepared for the Irish DPP). Currently gardai are executing two separate search warrants on properties and land located at Ballyhook over the Kildare/Wicklow border. Early Tuesday afternoon, the 55-year-old-man, from a prominent Wicklow political family was released without charge. Gardai believe he was the last person to see Jo Jo Dullard alive and from very early on in the case investigation he was a person-of-interest befor...

Scissor Sisters: The Murder of Farah Swaleh Noor

Farah Swaleh Noor was 40 years old at the time of his death. He arrived in Ireland in December 1996, claiming to be a Somali called "Sheilila Salim" whose family had been killed in Mogadishu during the Somali Civil War. Subsequent investigations revealed that he was in fact a Kenyan. He was granted Irish citizenship in March 1999 because he had become the father of an Irish-born child. Noor had four previous convictions for offences including intoxication, threatening and abusive behaviour and assault. Noor had faced eight charges of disorder and assault, one involving a sexual assault in which a knife was found at the scene by gardaí. He was convicted on three occasions but never served time in jail. Noor lived in a number of areas in Dublin, including Dún Laoghaire and Firhouse, as well as the inner city before moving in with his then partner Kathleen Mulhall. Gardaí described him as being particularly violent towards women. On the 20th March, 2005 sisters Linda and Charl...