Russia Shot Down Flight MH17 Killing 298 People, Rules Top Europe Court

 Judges at the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday also delivered damning judgments against Russia in three other cases brought by Kyiv and the Netherlands accusing Moscow of atrocities in Ukraine dating back more than a decade, NDTV reported.

Malaysia Airlines' Boeing 777--from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur--was shot down on July 17, 2014, using a Russian-made Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by separatist rebels loyal to Moscow. 

Reading the judgment in a courtroom in Strasbourg, the court's president, Mattias Guyomar, said that the "evidence suggested that the missile had been intentionally fired at flight MH17, most likely in the mistaken belief that it had been a military aircraft."

The judges found that Russia's refusal to acknowledge its involvement in the Flight MH17 disaster violated international law. It said that Moscow's failure to properly investigate the matter "significantly aggravated the suffering" of the relatives and friends of the dead.