MH17 murder trial starts with calls for justice

Badhoevedorp, March 9

Four men accused of murder over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 went on trial in the Netherlands on Monday, with families of the 298 victims calling for justice.

The suspects — three Russians and a Ukrainian — were not present in the dock, but judges were expected to rule that the hearing could continue in their absence.

Head judge Hendrik Steenhuis declared the trial open at the court near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport where the flight took off, adding that there had been a “tragic loss of human lives from all around the world” in the “atrocious disaster”.

Dutch prosecutors last year charged Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko — all linked to pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine — over the tragedy.

Moscow again on Friday accused the Netherlands of a “crude attempt to put pressure on the court”.

More than two-thirds of the victims — 196 in total — were Dutch. — AFP