MH17 case: Dutch court holds tenth hearing

Presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis took the floor. He summarized everything said by prosecutors and lawyers of Lieutenant Colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Federation Oleg Pulatov during the previous meetings. Afterward, the court is to announce a decision on inquiries for an investigation from Pulatov's lawyers.

Pulatov's defense team sees the need for further investigation. In particular, they demand more attention to alternative theories of the crash, as well as the questioning of about a hundred witnesses and experts.

Dutch prosecutors see as inappropriate statements by Pulatov's lawyers who insist that the investigation has not been completed.

The second block of court hearings in the MH17 case began on June 8, 2020.

In March this year, the District Court of The Hague began hearing the case of the crash of flight MH17 in the sky over Donbas.

The Schiphol Judicial Complex, located 50 kilometers from The Hague, has been reserved for one year for the MH17 case.

Lawyers Sabine Ten Doesschate and Boudewijn van Eijck from the Sjöcrona Van Stigt law firm represent the interests of one of the four suspects, Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Pulatov, who has expressed a desire to join the trial.

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."

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.

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