Hopes for justice fade as relatives mourn 10th anniversary of MH17 downing

AMSTERDAM

Relatives wearing black gathered near Amsterdam yesterday to mourn victims on the 10th anniversary of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, as hopes fade that those responsible for shooting down the plane will wind up behind bars.

Russia has refused to extradite three men convicted by a Dutch court over their role in the plane's downing, and last year international investigators suspended their work, saying there was not enough evidence to prosecute more suspects.

"I don't think those responsible will serve their sentences," said Evert van Zijtveld, who lost his daughter Frederique, 19, and his son Robert-Jan, 18, as well as his parents-in-law.

Yesterday, hundreds of relatives as well as government representatives and dignitaries, many dressed in black, arrived at an event at a memorial park near Schiphol airport where the doomed flight took off on a bright summer's day on July 17, 2014.

Hours later the Boeing 777 jet was shot down by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine, as it passed on a flight line toward Kuala Lumpur. All 298 people on board were killed.

The victims came from at least 10 countries, with 196 of them Dutch, 43 Malaysian and 38 Australian.

Memorials were also held elsewhere, including a service in the Australian parliament in Canberra, where family members placed flowers on a wreath, many pausing for a moment to wipe away tears.

Australia will "not be deterred in our commitment to hold Russia to account," Foreign Minister Penny Wong told relatives and dignitaries.

A Dutch court in November 2022 sentenced in absentia three men to life imprisonment for their roles in bringing down the plane over separatist-held pro-Russian territory, during the early stages of a war that saw Moscow seize the Crimean peninsula.