London: Europe’s peak court on human rights has found Russia responsible for the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in a missile attack, issuing a landmark verdict on state conduct that killed 298 passengers and crew.

In the first judgment of its kind after years of legal dispute, the European Court of Human Rights held unanimously that Russia and its agents engaged in “manifestly unlawful” conduct in the July 2014 attack.

Agent to the European Court of Human Rights for the Netherlands, Babette Koopman, right, hugs plaintiffs after the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment.Credit: AP

The decision was part of a broader ruling that also found Russia and its leaders responsible for years of human rights abuses, including torture and summary executions since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“Taken as a whole, the vast volume of evidence before the court presented a picture of interconnected practices of manifestly unlawful conduct by agents of the Russian state… on a massive scale across Ukraine,” it found.

The court named the Russian armed forces, other state authorities and its separatist groups as responsible.

The Netherlands and Ukraine brought the action against Russia in the peak human rights court over four cases dating to 2014, seeking rulings to defeat Russian arguments that it was not responsible for abuses and that separates had brought down MH17 without state involvement.

The reconstructed wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, at the Gilze-Rijen military airbase, southern Netherlands, in 2021.Credit: AP

The sweeping decision, issued on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) in Strasbourg by 17 judges from across Europe, found Russia responsible for summary executions, torture, the use of rape as a weapon of war, religious persecution, forced labour and other breaches.

MH17 was shot down on July 17, 2014, while in flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur and travelling over eastern Ukraine, where separatists backed by Russia were fighting Ukrainian forces in the months after the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea.

The victims included 38 Australians such as Perth grandfather Nick Norris and three of his grandchildren; Mo, Otis and Evie.

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The court judgment includes detailed analysis of the Buk-Telar ground-to-air missile system being used in Ukraine, dismissing arguments that the separatists were not agents of the Russian state.

“The court agreed that the evidence suggested that the missile had been intentionally fired at flight MH17 most likely in the mistaken belief that it had been a military aircraft,” the court said in a statement.

“It was not necessary for the court to decide exactly who had fired the missile, since Russia was responsible for the acts of the Russian armed forces and of the armed separatists.

“The court accepted the evidence of the Dutch government that a Buk-Telar acting alone could not distinguish between military and civilian aircraft.

“The court found that no measures had been taken by Russia to accurately identify military targets, in breach of the principles of distinction and precautions.”

Australian has backed the proceedings at the human rights court over many years, while also supporting separate actions that sought to hold key individuals to account on criminal grounds.

The District Court of The Hague decided the criminal case in November 2022 by sentencing Leonid Kharchenko, Sergei Dubinskiy and Igor Girkin to life imprisonment for the murder of 298 people.

A fourth man, Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted because the court ruled there was not enough evidence about his role in firing the missile.

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In the civil case, the European Court of Human Rights confirmed Russia’s involvement in the destruction of flight MH17 in January 2023, but it has taken since then to issue a comprehensive judgment on Russia.

The decision is the first time an international court has found Russia guilty of international human rights abuses since the February 2022 invasion, and the first judgment of its kind on MH17.

The judgment covered four cases including one brought by the Netherlands against Russia in 2020 over MH17. The other three were brought by Ukraine against Russia in 2014 over human rights violations by separatists in eastern Ukraine and the abduction of children.

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