Today, Thursday, a Dutch court convicted 3 people of murder for their role in shooting down a Malaysian Airlines plane in 2014 over Ukraine, while acquitting the fourth accused, in return, Russia announced its rejection of the verdict, describing it as "politicized".
Flight MH 17 was shot down by a guided missile over eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing 298 passengers and crew.
The court issued life sentences to two Russian intelligence agents, Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinsky, and the Ukrainian separatist leader, Leonid Kharchenko, for murder and involvement in the downing of a civilian plane, while it acquitted the Russian Oleg Bulatov.
The court also ruled that the three convicts be fined more than 16 million euros ($16.5 million) in compensation to the relatives of the victims.
Presiding judge Hendrik Stenhaus, reading a summary of the verdict, said only the maximum punishment is appropriate to hold the suspects accountable for what they did, which caused so much suffering to so many victims and their relatives.
Stenhouse stated that the defendants do not enjoy any immunity from prosecution, since they are not members of the Russian armed forces.
Relatives of the victims stood in tears in the courtroom as Stenhouse read out the verdict.
Victims' representatives said the verdict was a milestone in the case, although the suspects are still on the run and are all believed to be in Russia, which will not extradite them.
On the other hand, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed regret at what it described as the Dutch judiciary's disregard of the principles of justice in exchange for the political interest in the case.
And she said - in a statement - that the course of the judicial process and its outcome indicate that the decision is based on a political matter, considering that the trial in the Netherlands is almost one of "the most scandalous trials in the history of judicial processes."
Moscow denies any involvement or responsibility in the downing of the plane.