SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (CN) — In a high-security courtroom near the Dutch airport where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 departed over seven years ago, defense lawyers on Monday continued to raise objections over issues with the investigation of the plane crash.
The first day of November hearings in the trial of four men accused of shooting down MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 focused on largely procedural issues, ahead of an expected closing statement by the prosecution.
Three Russian men — Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov — and one Ukraine man, Leonid Kharchenko, are charged with 298 counts of murder for allegedly supplying the Buk surface-to-air missile that prosecutors say shot down the Boeing 777 on July 17, 2014.
The Netherlands has taken on the prosecution because nearly 200 of the victims were Dutch. The case is being heard before the District Court of the Hague, though the hearings are being held at a secure facility near Schiphol Airport, where the plane departed en route to Kuala Lumpur.
None of the suspects were present in the courtroom Monday. Pulatov has retained counsel, while the other three are being tried in absentia.
The morning began with statements from Pulatov’s defense counsel, who complained that the prosecution was stalling the investigation. The defense wants the investigating judge to conduct further interviews with a number of witnesses as well as provide full transcripts of previous interviews. The Dutch legal system is an inquisitorial system where the court is involved in the investigation of the crime, as opposed to the U.S. adversarial system where two sides present competing evidence before an impartial judge or jury.
Defense lawyer Sabine ten Doesschate told the court the prosecution was “undermining the dignity of this process.”
The interview of Sergei Mutskayev is of particular concern. Mutskayev was the commander of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade of the Russian army, the unit prosecutors claim the Buk missile originated from. Dutch authorities have requested to speak with Mutskayev, but the Russian Federation has so far failed to make him available. In September, the JIT, a five-country joint investigation team led by the Netherlands, asked witnesses in the Russian city of Kursk, where the 53rd Brigade is based, to come forward with more information. The defense claims this extraordinary request soured Moscow on making Mutskayev available.
Ten Doesschate further accused the prosecution of withholding critical information, including an interview with an anonymous witness from the 53rd Brigade who said he didn’t think the passenger airline was shot down with a Buk missile.
“How is it possible that the Public Prosecution Service does not find this statement relevant?” she said. The defense said it only received information about the interview last week.
Prosecutor Thijs Berger defended his team's choices, arguing that many of these requests have already been covered. Previous requests for assistance have gone unanswered by Moscow, which has denied any involvement in the tragedy.
"The door to the 53rd Brigade is closed," Berger said.
Months before the tragedy, Ukrainian voters had overthrown the country’s pro-Russian government and Moscow responded with the annexation of Crimea, a peninsula extending from Ukraine’s southern coast. Ten countries with citizens on MH17 attempted an international tribunal to investigate the tragedy but were blocked by Russia at the United Nations.
Preliminary hearings began more than a year ago, in March 2020, with the prosecution reading out the names of all 298 victims of the disaster. The trial finally started on the merits in June. The court doesn’t expect to reach a verdict until late 2022.
Hearings will continue Tuesday.
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