Dutch judges viewed the reconstructed shell of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 ahead of a trial for four suspects to be held in The Hague. The incident killed 283 passengers and 15 crew members when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Dutch Judges View Reconstructed MH17 Plane Ahead Of Murder Trial
- By RFE/RL
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Lawyers inspect the reconstructed shell of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 at the Gilze-Rijen Air Base in the Netherlands on May 26.
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The judges will oversee the murder trial of Russian nationals Oleg Pulatov, Igor Girkin, and Sergei Dubinsky, as well as Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko. The four are being tried in absentia on 298 counts of murder. Only Pulatov has hired a defense team. The Dutch government said the plane was downed by separatists using a Russian-made Buk missile launcher. Russia denies any involvement in the incident.
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Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis (pictured) told reporters during the inspection, "We realize that this visit to the reconstruction of MH17 as part of the official criminal process will be very emotionally loaded for relatives."
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The inspection of the wreckage was livestreamed for relatives of the deceased passengers and crew.
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A view of the nose of the downed airliner with apparent shrapnel damage on the glass of the cockpit
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A view of the inside of the cockpit in a photo taken in 2015 when the reconstructed plane was first put on display
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These pieces of the wreckage used to reconstruct the aircraft were all collected after an intensive search within an active war zone in a part of Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed separatists.
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A November 2014 photo of a man carrying a piece of the aircraft from the crash site inside Ukrainian territory held by Russia-backed separatists. Dutch inspectors commissioned the emergency services of the separatist group that calls itself the Donetsk People's Republic to collect the wreckage after saying the area was too dangerous for their staff.
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The murder trial hearings began in March 2020 but were taken up by procedural issues. Prosecutors are due to make their opening statements in the case on June 7.
