Trial of suspects in downing of MH17 flight opens

Video Credit: Reuters Studio
Published on March 9, 2020 - Duration: 01:36s

Trial of suspects in downing of MH17 flight opens

A trial opened in the Netherlands on Monday of three Russians and a Ukrainian over the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on July 17, 2014.

Lauren Anthony reports.


Trial of suspects in downing of MH17 flight opens

The trial of four fugitive suspects over the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 started in Amsterdam on Monday (March 9), more than five years after the plane came down in Ukraine.

Prosecutors say three Russians and a Ukrainian will tried in absentia, charged with murder.

They're accused of helping to arrange the Russian missile system used to shoot down the passenger jet.

The suspects, still at large, are believed to be in Russia.

MH17 was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in 2014, when it was hit by a surface-to-air missile.

All 298 passengers and crew were killed.

On Sunday (March 8), some of the victim's families protested outside the Russian embassy in the Hague, and put out empty chairs to represent those who died.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) YOUNGER BROTHER OF MH17 VICTIM, PIET PLOEG, SAYING: "The idea of the action is to make perfectly clear to the Russian state that they have to cooperate with the investigation, you know.

Up till now the Russians have obstructed the investigations or at least they didn't cooperate with the investigation of the joint investigation team." The defendants, Russians Sergey Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Igor Girkin and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, had senior positions in pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine back in 2014.

They are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Girkin has said rebels were not responsible for the plane's downing and declined further comment.

The aircraft's downing led to sanctions against Russia by the European Union, and heightened tensions between Russia and Western powers who blame it for the disaster.

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