THE HAGUE: Russia has filed an appeal with the International Court of Justice over a decision deeming Moscow responsible for the downing of a Malaysian jetliner over Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people, the court said Friday (Sept 19).
Australia and the Netherlands, the countries with the most fatalities in the disaster, had launched the case, calling for Russia to assume responsibility for the downing and pay damages.
On July 17, 2014, the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was hit by a Russian-made BUK missile over eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, where pro-Russian separatist rebels were battling Ukrainian forces.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the UN's aviation agency, ruled in May that their case was "well founded in fact and in law".
The ICJ said that in its filing on Thursday, Russia claimed the agency had "erred in fact and in law" with regards to the 1944 Chicago Convention on international aviation.
"The Convention does not apply to situations of armed conflict," Moscow said in its application, adding that investigators had disregarded "the evidence supplied by the Russian Federation".
In 2022, a Dutch court sentenced three men to life in prison over the downing, among them two Russians, but Russia has refused to extradite them. - AFP
