MH17 trial: Experts to be interrogated before consideration of merits starts

MH17 trial: Experts to be interrogated before consideration of merits starts

Ukrinform
Experts in the MH17 case are to be interrogated before the consideration of the case’s merits starts.

As an Ukrinform correspondent reports, presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis said that the court plans to hear a number of experts in the case of MH17, in particular, the specialists of Russian concern Almaz-Antey.

According to him, the interrogations of Dutch, Belgian and Russian experts should be completed in April 2021.

"Experts’ testimony should be included in the consideration of the case’s merits," Steenhuis said.

It is known that The Hague District Court plans to begin the consideration of the merits on June 7, 2021.

In turn, the lawyers of suspect Oleg Pulatov, who expressed a desire to join the trial, ask to allow Almaz-Antey expert to inspect the wreckage of MH17 before interrogation and to provide photos of all plane fragments.

Dutch lawyer Sabine Ten Doesschate, who represents Pulatov's interests, said that the defense asked to inspect all the plane fragments stored in the Netherlands. She noted that there was no detailed report on each fragment.

Today, the first court hearing in the MH17 case this year started at the Schiphol Judicial Complex in the Netherlands.

In particular, now it is planned to consider the progress of additional investigation, hear the appeals of the relatives of victims regarding compensation, etc.

In March 2020, the District Court of The Hague began the consideration of the case of the downing of flight MH17 in the sky over Donbas.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over conflict-hit Donbas in July 2014. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. All of them died. The international Joint Investigation Team reported that the plane had been shot down from a Buk missile system that belongs to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Kursk.

On June 19, 2019, the JIT named four suspects believed to be involved in the transportation and combat use of the Buk missile system, from which MH17 flight had been downed. Three of them are Russians: Igor Girkin (Strelkov), former colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence service and former so-called defense minister of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic"; Sergey Dubinskiy, general (at the time of downing – colonel) of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and head of the so-called "Main Intelligence Directorate of the Donetsk People’s Republic"; Oleg Pulatov, lieutenant colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. The fourth suspect is Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian civilian, who fought on the side of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic."

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