Anthony Albanese calls on Russia to hand over three men found guilty of shooting down MH17
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called on Russia to act after three men were found guilty of deliberately downing MH17.
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Australia has called upon Russia to hand over the three men found guilty of downing MH17 in a “deliberate act of terrorism” that killed 298 people.
Anthony Albanese said he welcomed the Hague District Court’s finding of three men being guilty of murder over the shooting down of the plane in 2014.
“Our thoughts today are with the family and friends who lost loved ones in that atrocity,” he said while in Bangkok for the APEC summit.
“Thirty-eight people who call Australia home were killed of the 298 victims of this atrocious act of terrorism.”
The Prime Minister said it was good there had been co-operation between Australia and the Dutch security and police forces.
“We’ve gone through this legal and court process, and we call upon Russia to hand over, for justice, the people who are involved in this and who have been found to be guilty in absentia,” he said.
‘EXTREME RELIEF’: AUSSIES REACT TO MH17 VERDICT
When the verdicts came in – guilty, guilty, and guilty – Meryn O’Brien let out the breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding.
The relief that she felt flooding over her when the judge of District Court of The Hague condemned two Russian intelligence officers and a Ukrainian separatist military leader to life sentences was hard earned, coming eight years after they blew out of the sky the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing 298 passengers and crew.
It was the moment she had built the last eight years of her life on, gaining a modicum of justice for her son Jack, 25, who died on board the Boeing 777 on his way back to Sydney, after seven weeks travelling around Europe.
Her sense of relief and desperation for accountability was short-lived.
“I was prepared for the fact that it might not be a guilty verdict because it’s happened before,” the Sydney resident said.
“Three out of four (accused) is not a bad result but what now?” she asked.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong and her predecessor Julie Bishop answered that, demanding the world continue to hold Russia’s military and its president Vladimir Putin to account.
“We would say to Russia, the world knows that you’re harbouring murderers and that says something about you, Mr Putin,” Senator Wong said.
She added: “We want Russia to act differently but until it does, what we have to do is maintain that collective response to Russia’s abrogation of international law.”
“Yes, I can draw a line under this part, but it won’t bring Jack back and the war is still continuing in the Ukraine.
“And we’re going to be living with the loss all our lives, it can take a long time for others to be prosecuted: there’s still the people higher up who haven’t been held accountable, the crew that pushed the button.
“There’s some relief but it’s not over. It helps, but it doesn’t bring back Jack.
“He was happy, he was in the prime of his life when we lost him.”
The same sense of relief, of accountability served and pain at least temporarily averted, was palpable in court D of the District Court of The Hague on Thursday after the three men were found guilty of murder and ordered to pay grieving relatives of victims €16 million ($A24.78m) compensation.
Two Russians — Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinsky — and Ukrainian dissident Leonid Kharchenko were convicted of murder in absentia for their roles in “deliberately” downing the plane over eastern Ukraine with a BUK ground to air missile.
A third Russian, Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted after the court conceded there was not enough to show he could have contributed to the launch of the missile or that he could have stopped it.
“The charges are so severe and consequences so severe only the highest prison sentence is appropriate after these detestable and grotesque actions caused so much grief to many,” Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said.
“What happened that day threw the relatives’ lives out of kilter, their lives were completely changed after the MH17 crash.
“Many suffer from persistent bereavement and PTSD, knowing a loved one is no longer alive.
“For people of Eastern Ukraine, they, too, were affected, wreckage and people fell from the sky and through the roof of their homes
“This too must have been appalling for them.”
Paul Guard, whose parents Jill and Roger from Toowoomba, Queensland, were two of 38 Australians who died on the plane, said “what happened is not acceptable”.
“We don’t accept we lost our loved ones, we don’t accept these people were fighting an illegal war essentially, they were not entitled to shoot down any planes, let alone a passenger flight with 298 innocent people on board,” he said.
Sunshine Coast resident Matthew Horder, 41, is still reeling from the death of his parents Susan, 62, and Howard, 63.
“Overall it’s a positive outcome, it’s what we came to hear, the missile downing mum and dad’s plane is true,” the delivery infrastructure manager said.
“There’s some justice, it’s not lost on us the three found guilty are unlikely to serve time behind bars but we’ve known that since the beginning, they were tried in absentia.
“Still, something feels different.”
Lamenting the ongoing violence in the region, the Australian relatives had a direct message for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Putin stop this senseless violence we do not need it, the Ukraine has had enough,” Mr Guard said.
Mr Guard’s sister Amanda Koopman, 41, said it was time for culpability.
“The hardest thing was sitting in the reconstructed wreckage yesterday in the same seat as our parents and imagining how they must have felt when the plane went down,” she said.
“And also feeling what those little children who died on board the flight must’ve felt brought me to tears.
“I’ve always been scared of flying, but now having to go over Russia, the war zone, after what happened to mum and dad, feels even more scary. But we came here for them.”
The Australian Federal Police, whose Operation AREW sought to bring all the victims home to their families, said the guilty verdicts would “make everybody aware that we’re watching, we haven’t forgotten”
“The justice system is impartial and the outcome reflects the complexity of the investigation. There are ongoing investigations and we’re looking for others,” AFP Assistant Commissioner Peter Crozier said outside of the court.
“That kind of determination isn’t just going to fade.
“There’s still a hard road ahead.
“What’s going on in Russia shows no respect for human lives.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong and her predecessor Julie Bishop demanded the world continue to hold Russia’s military and its president Vladimir Putin to account.
“We would say to Russia, the world knows that you’re harbouring murderers and that says something about you, Mr Putin,” Senator Wong said.
She added: “We want Russia to act differently but until it does, what we have to do is maintain that collective response to Russia’s abrogation of international law.”
Ms Bishop, who famously shirt-fronted Putin in 2014 over his obfuscation of the MH17 probe, said the world should continue to assert pressure.
“Russia has played the role of spoiler and disruptor, it has actively sought to disrupt the proceedings, it has actively tried to disrupt the investigation, it seeks to discredit the investigation and even today is still blaming others for what was clearly an act of the Russian military under the direction of the President Vladimir Putin … I will continue to call for Russia to be held to account,” she said
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Originally published as Anthony Albanese calls on Russia to hand over three men found guilty of shooting down MH17
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