Germany says rebels used Ukranian missile to down MH17 passenger plane

[The Magistrate]

40. One Presumes You are Referring To 'Contributory Negligence', Sir

The idea that, say, if someone runs an red light, and is struck by someone driving a car with faulty brakes, both have contributed to the accident: the bulk of the fault lies with driver who ran the light, but there might have been no accident at all even so if the other driver had maintained the brakes right. A passenger in one vehicle injured might receive three quarters of the medical costs from the first, and one quarter from the second. But it would not affect criminal liability of the driver who ran the red light.

The share of responsibility you are trying to raise is far more tenuous. It is more closely analogous to saying that if, say, a route to a destination suggested by some GPS navigation service passes through a dangerous neighborhood, and a passenger in the car is hit by a bullet from a shoot-out between sets of locals, the navigation service is 'really' the party responsible for the injury. I would not expect such a suit to get far in court, and again, even if it did and prevailed, it would not affect in the slightest the criminal liability of the person who pulled the trigger.

The operators of the missile launcher almost certainly meet standards of criminal negligence, and possibly even of depraved indifference. Criminal responsibility extends no further than the operators, and their command structure.