Russia is threatened with large claims from victims of the Boeing disaster in the Donbass in 2014

Moscow does not recognize the conclusions of the investigation and does not plan to pay yet.
28.05.2018
Vedomosti
Origin source
The Netherlands considers Russia involved in the collapse of the Malaysian Boeing (flight MH17) in the Donbass in July 2014, Australia shares this position, the Dutch government said on Friday. "Judicial proceedings at the state level are a complicated legal process, and for this there are several possibilities. The Netherlands and Australia asked Russia to enter into a dialogue to come to a decision to compensate for the immense suffering and damage that the MH17 wreck caused. The possible next step is the transfer of the case to an international court or other organization, "the statement said. On Thursday, a joint investigation team reported that the Buk anti-aircraft missile system that shot down the air belonged to the 53rd anti-aircraft brigade from Kursk. The Netherlands Foreign Minister Stef Bloch explained that the process of bringing Russia to justice will go along with an investigation aimed at establishing individual criminal responsibility for the death of 298 people (most of them Dutch nationals).

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that he had discussed the situation with Blok, but had not heard from him any facts proving Russia's guilt. And President Vladimir Putin said that since Russia is not allowed to investigate, she "has no reason to fully trust" its results.

On Friday, the Dutch television station NPO 1, citing lawyer Jerry Skinner (who won compensation for the families of victims of the terrorist attack over Lockerbie from the Libyan authorities), said a group of 270 Dutch relatives of victims filed a lawsuit against Russia against the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). According to him, the Dutch joined the suit filed a year ago against Russia and Putin on behalf of 33 relatives of the victims from Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand. The lawyer did not name the exact amount of the compensation, saying only that it was about millions for each deceased (in May 2017 it was reported that the relatives claimed $ 10 million for each victim). Skinner drew attention to the fact that the ECHR is the only place where individuals can file a lawsuit against Russia. According to the television channel, in total, the family and close relatives of the ECHR were approached by about 130 people. In January 2018, relatives of 25 dead won a court case against the former defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Igor Girkin in the United States, each of the applicants must pay $ 20 million each.

The question of compensation will be decided by the court, said security expert Alexander Konovalov: "It will be considered approximately so - how much should the deceased have lived, how much would they have earned, and what was the lost profit. A few million dollars will have to be paid for each deceased. " He recalls that the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and without acknowledging the blame for the terrorist attack on Lockerbie, paid $ 10 million to the families of the deceased.

It will be difficult to demand compensation, since Russia did not recognize the jurisdiction of any court on this issue, explains Ilya Rachkov, assistant professor of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. "We recognize the jurisdiction of the ECHR, and if one of the relatives lodges in this court, compensation is possible - it is not paid to the country , but to specific applicants. On some issues, Russia recognizes the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, but there is no treaty that would fall under this case. They suggested creating a special criminal court for this case, but Russia did not agree, and the countries concerned decided to conduct the investigation themselves. " Theoretically, compensation can be claimed under the article on the responsibility of states for internationally wrongful acts, developed by the International Law Commission, a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly, the expert notes: "It states that if the actions of individuals are imputed to the state, then it must bear responsibility. If it is proved that the Buk was supposed to be in Russia, and she released it, then in accordance with this document, Russia must answer. " There are three forms of responsibility - restitution, which is impossible in this case, satisfaction (non-material responsibility, apology and guarantees of non-repetition) and compensation, explains Rachkov: "Compensation is calculated from the number of victims, their age, how much they could live if the plane was not shot down. " Among the precedents that can be relied upon, he calls the plane of Siberia Airlines, shot down by Ukraine during the exercises, (then it was paid at $ 200,000 for each dead person) and the Pan American plane exploded by the Libyans over Lockerbie.

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