Judge Steenhuis: Coronavirus won’t hinder MH17 trial

This was emphasized by the presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis during the fourth court hearing at the Schiphol Judicial Complex in the Netherlands, an Ukrinform correspondent in The Hague reports.

"The court would like to hear Mr. Pulatov, but you are aware of the current situation in the world. Local law allows the case to be heard without suspects, so his absence, as well as the situation with coronavirus, will not prevent the case from being heard further,” Steenhuis said.

As reported, due to the spread of coronavirus, the number of people who can be in courtroom is limited.

Judges, prosecutors, relatives of the victims, the lawyers of suspect Pulatov, who expressed a desire to participate in the trial, are present in the courtroom. Pulatov's interests are represented by lawyers Sabine Ten Doesschate and Boudewijn van Eijck from the Sjöcrona Van Stigt Dutch law firm. Two Dutch lawyers are cooperating with their Russian counterpart Elena Kutyina, who is not present in the courtroom. Dozens of journalists are in the press center.

The court hearing can be followed live.

The hearings within MH17 trial took place on March 9, 10, and 23, 2020.

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 JIT 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 international Joint Investigation Team 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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