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In 2014, a vanguard that crashed onto a crashed passenger liner in eastern Ukraine was restored to a metal skeleton at Gilze-Reien Air Force Base in the Netherlands.
Three Russian citizens and one Ukrainian are on trial for the crash, which killed 298 people on a Boeing 777 jet. The lawsuit over legal disputes, which began last March, is slow. The accused are tried in absentia.
“We understand that this visit to the MH17 reconstruction site during the formal criminal process will cause a lot of excitement for the families,” said Chief Justice Hendrik Steenhuis.
“It is a plane that their loved ones flew without reaching their destination, because the ocean liner crashed during the flight and all the people on board died,” he said.
The judges inspected the restored arch from the outside, which still displays the Malaysia Airlines logo colors, and then climbed the ladder to inspect the interior of the wreckage.
“Previously, the judges did not have the opportunity to inspect the bow of a restored aircraft,” Steenhuis said.
“Therefore, the judges will now be the first and one to inspect the restored arch and other remains to make a first impression,” he said.
Subsequently, lawyers from both sides of the criminal process were allowed to inspect the remains.
Terrifying conclusion
On July 17, 2014, a plane flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. The accident killed all 298 people on board, including 196 Dutch nationals.
An international team of investigators concluded that the coating was shot down by a BUK missile launched from a compound brought in from Russia’s 53rd Airspace Defense Brigade stationed in Kursk.
The wreckage was transported by rail and plane from Ukraine to the Dutch Air Force base.
A Dutch-led aviation security investigation found that the plane had been destroyed by around 800 ‘high-energy objects’ from a missile.
Investigators concluded that some of the plane’s passengers may have been conscious for about another minute and a half after the rocket struck as the plane landed on the ground.
The trial began in March 2020, but is slow due to legal disputes. The court that will hear the evidence will begin in June.
The trial is taking place in the Netherlands because a plane crashed from here and 196 victims of the accident were Dutch.
Four people are on trial for shooting down the plane: Russians Oleg Pulatov, Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky, and Ukrainian Leonid Charchenko.
O. Pulatov is represented by lawyers as the sole defendant. In a video shown in court last November, he claimed that he had not seen the rocket that shot down the plane.
The four defendants are seen as important figures among the pro-Russian separatists fighting against Kiev.
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