Referring To The Decision Of The Dutch Court On The Tragedy Of MH17 Not Having Legal Consequences, Russia Will Not Leave Its Citizens

The flower sea at Dutch Schipol Amsterdam Airport in memory of Malaysian victim Airlines MH17. (Wikimedia Commons/JurgenNL)

JAKARTA - Russia will not hand over its citizens who were sentenced to life in the Malaysia Airlines MH17 tragedy trial, assessing the decision has no legal consequences.

The judge sentenced three men on charges of murder for their role in the 2014 Malaysia Airlines MH17 shooting over Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew, by imposing life imprisonment in a absence manner.

The three are former Russian intelligence agents Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, as well as Ukrainian separatist leader Leonid Kharchenko.

"It will have no legal consequences but it is interesting to consider," said the head of the committee on the Constitutional Legislation and State Development, Russian Federation Council Andrey Klishas.

"We have never extradited Russian citizens to other countries under any circumstances," Klishas added.

He also wondered how the court rated the actions of Ukrainian officials "who started civil war after the anti-constitution coup, then failed to close airspace over the zone of armed conflict for civil aviation."

The Hague Court believes Malaysia Airlines MH17's flight crashed by a Buk missile fired from the field near Pervomaysky village, which was then controlled by the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said, reading the verdict.

The court also said Russia had "all control" over separatist forces in eastern Ukraine when the plane was shot down.

Malaysia Airlines MH17 flights from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine's Donetsk Region on July 17, 2014, killing 298 people from ten countries.