Plane crash
Plane crashiStock

A Dutch court handed three men life sentences on Thursday for the deaths of 298 passengers and crew members on board a Malaysian Airlines flight that was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014.

The court also said that it was a Russian missile that hit Flight MH17, Fox News reported.

Four suspects were taken into custody for their involvement in the plane crash. Three of them, two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian, were sentenced to life in prison on Thursday.

The fourth suspect was released due to lack of evidence.

“The court is of the opinion that MH17 was brought down by the firing of a BUK missile from a farm field near Pervomaisk, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members," Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said, Reuters reported.

The shooting down of the plane took place only months after Russia annexed Crimea.

The three men allegedly fired the missile from a farmer’s field in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. When the incident occurred, Russia was in control of the area.

"There is plentiful evidence" to support the theory that the missile was shot at the plane from a field in pro-Russian territory in Donetsk, Steenhuis told the court in his ruling.

"There is no reasonable doubt possible," he said, rejecting the claim by the defense that the plane may have experienced other issues that led it to crash.