US court awards MH17 victims' families right to millions in compensation
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
30.01.2018 14:42
A US court has awarded the families of 25 victims of downed flight MH-17 the right to hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation, to be paid out by pro-Russian separatist leader Igor Girkin, Dutch television programme ZEMBLA has reported.
Investigation of the MH-17 crash site by Dutch and Australian police officers. Photo: Ministerie van Defensie/Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
The programme claimed to have court documents which showed that the families of 25 victims, ten of whom were Dutch, were to be compensated USD 20 million each.
The ZEMBLA report added that there was little chance the victims’ families would ever see any compensation, as Girkin, also known as Strelkov, did not appear in the US District Court and was not found at his address in Moscow.
The victims’ families’ lawyer Floyd Wisner way quoted by ZEMBLA as saying: “This case was not about money, but about justice for the families,” and to draw attention to the tragedy.
On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 crashed in Ukraine en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 people onboard, most of them from the Netherlands.
The Reuters news agency reported that international prosecutors said the plane was shot down by pro-Russian separatists in Donbass, but that Moscow claimed Ukraine’s military was responsible.
In July 2014, the BBC’s Russian service reported that Girkin denied giving an order to shoot down the plane. (vb)