Two Russians and one Ukrainian have been convicted of the murders of all 298 people, including two Newcastle United fans, who died when their flight was brought down over Ukraine.
Liam Sweeney, 28, and fellow supporter John Alder, 63, were travelling to New Zealand to watch the Magpies in a pre-season friendly. They were flying on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
The pair were killed, alongside 296 others who were on board the flight, when it was attacked while travelling from Amsterdam to Malaysia on July 17, 2014.
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After an investigation spanning years, an international team of investigators and prosecutors named four suspects in 2019. They were Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko.
In March 2020, the four defendants went on trial at The Hague in the Netherlands, charged with multiple counts of murder for their alleged involvement in the downing of the MH17 flight. However none of the suspects have attended court to answer the charges.
On Thursday afternoon, a Dutch court convicted Girkin, Dubinskiy and Kharchenko of the murder of the 289 who died in the downing of flight MH17. Pulatov was acquitted for lack of evidence.
The three defendants who were convicted were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said evidence presented by prosecutors at a trial that lasted more than two years proved that the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was brought down by a Buk missile fired by pro-Moscow Ukrainian rebels on July 17 2014.
The prosecution had sought life sentences for all four. Prosecutors and the suspects have two weeks to file an appeal.
Pulatov was acquitted and defence lawyers accused prosecutors of "tunnel vision" in basing their case on the findings of an international investigation into the downing while ignoring other possible causes.
In a video recording played in court, Mr Pulatov insisted he was innocent and told judges: “What matters to me is that the truth is revealed. It’s important for me that my country is not blamed for this tragedy.”
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