Dutch court to deliver MH17 plane crash case verdict this week; families hope for justice
Reconstructed wreckage of MH17 airplane
More than eight years after the flight MH17 tragedy that killed 298 passengers, acourt in the Netherlands will be announcing the verdict against four murder suspects on Thursday. The families of the bereaved are hoping that the court grants the harshest of sentences to the accused who shot down an entire plane.
“Those who are responsible for downing MH17 should be sent to prison. If they are guilty, the international community should hunt them down,”Evert van Zijtveld, a mother who lost her son and daughter in the crash was quoted as saying by AFP.
“For me, the verdict will be the partial end for the search for justice for my dear family...I hope the legal proof will be sufficient to come to a verdict," 72-year-oldSander Essers who losthis brother Peter, sister-in-law Jolette Nuesink and their two children Emma, 20 and Valentijn, 17 told the agency.
The Boeing 777 aircraft was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on the fateful night ofJuly 17,2014 when it was hit by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile over Donetsk, a Ukrainian region which Russia recently claimed in a referendum.
All sorts of theories were floated in the aftermath of the incident. However, after years of collecting evidence, a Dutch-led international Joint Investigation Team (JIT), in 2019said the missile launcher used to hit the jet came from aRussian army base just across the border.
WATCH |MH17 crash: 4 suspects to face murder trial
The JIT subsequently issued arrest warrants for four suspects, who were put on trial in the Netherlands in absentia in 2020.
Three Russians viz. Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov, and a Ukrainian, Leonid Kharchenko have been named the suspects and remain on run.
Notably, despite being at large, Pulatov has appointed a Dutch law firm to represent him. As a result, under Dutch law, he is not being tried in absentia.
The prosecution is currently seeking life sentences for all of them.The trial is taking place in The Netherlands largely because the plane to Kuala Lumpur left from Schiphol, and 196 of the passengers were Dutch.
(With inputs from agencies)
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