Dutch judges said Monday they wanted relatives of victims to finally have “clarity” about the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine as the trial of four suspects entered a key phase.
Some relatives were in court for the start of a week in which judges will at last examine evidence against the three Russians and one Ukrainian who are on trial in absentia over the July 2014 disaster.
The trial formally began in March 2020 but has until now dealt with legal arguments, mainly about the admissibility of evidence in the crash in which all 298 passengers and crew on the Boeing 777 were killed.
Presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis told the court up until today no one has come forward and said they are even partially responsible for the crash of MH17
Steenhuis said it was crucial for the evidence to be heard in open court despite the absence of Russian nationals Oleg Pulatov, Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky, and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko.
Judges said the court will this week look at evidence about three key questions: whether the Boeing 777 was shot down by a Russian-made missile; the location the missile was fired from, and the role of the four suspects in the crash.
The idea that the plane had been downed by a BUK surface-to-air missile operated by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine was the “main scenario”, Steenhuis added, but they would also look at theories including that a plane had shot down MH17.
The court would be highlighting key parts of the evidence and not going over every part in court, he warned.
Discover more from LN247
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
