ICC declined to rule on MH17

Judges at International Criminal Court (ICC), The Hague declined to rule on allegations by Kyiv that Moscow was responsible for the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over east Ukraine in 2014.

They pointed out violations of funding terrorism only applied to monetary and financial support, not to supplying weapons or training as alleged by Ukraine, reported Reuters.

Kyiv had accused Russia of equipping and funding pro-Russian forces, including rebels who shot down MH17 in July 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

The ICC however found Russia violated elements of a UN anti terrorism treaty. Russia was found to have breached anti discrimination treaty by failing to support Ukrainian language education after its 2014 annexation.

The court rejected Ukraine’s requests to order reparations for both violations and only ordered Russia to comply with the treaties.

Ukraine’s representative Anton Korynevych stressed that the judgement established Russia as a violator of international law.

Ukraine had filed the lawsuit at the ICJ, also known as the World Court, in 2017, accusing Russia of violating an anti-terrorism treaty by funding pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.

The court’s judges said Moscow violated the U.N.’s anti-terrorism treaty by not investigating plausible allegations that some funds were sent from Russia to Ukraine to possibly fund terrorist activities.

The 16-judge panel ordered Russia to investigate any plausible allegations of terrorism financing but turned down a request by Kyiv for reparations.