AMSTERDAM: Nearly six years after Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot out of the sky over eastern Ukraine, criminal proceedings started in a Dutch court today against four men, the culmination of a painstaking multi-nation criminal investigation.
The four – Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko – expectedly did not appear at the District Court of The Hague sitting at the Schiphol Judicial Court (JCS) complex in Badhoevedorp here.
It was, nevertheless, an emotional moment for those with loved ones onboard the Boeing 777 which was blown apart by a missile on a routine flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014.
The plane crashed in the Donetsk area of Ukraine territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
The defendants, who could not be legally extradited from their countries, had been charged with causing the crash of MH17 and the murder of everyone on board.
The majority of victims were Dutch, but passengers included Malaysians, Australians, Britons, and 13 other nationalities.
Some family members of victims were present in Courtroom D of the JCS complex while others watched proceedings, which started at 10am (5pm Malaysian time), livestreamed on giant screens in adjacent courtrooms.
The courtroom and press centre next to the JCS complex was filled to capacity.
The charges against Girkin, Dubinskiy, Pulatov, and Kharchenko are:
*Causing the crash of flight MH17, resulting in the death of all persons on board, punishable pursuant to Article 168 of the Dutch Criminal Code, and
*The murder of the 298 persons on board flight MH17, punishable pursuant to Article 289 of the Dutch Criminal Code.
The maximum sentence for these charges is life imprisonment.
Three judges – Hendrik Steenhuis, Dagmar Koster and Heleene Kersten-Fockens – presided over the case, with two other judges acting in a reserve capacity.
Presiding judge Steenhuis, in his opening statement, said many had waited a long time for the start of proceedings.
"This was a tragic loss of so many human lives with enormous consequences for their next-of-kin. The impact of the loss of lives is barely conceivable.
"The court will deal extensively with the consequences."
Steenhuis said the first phase of hearings will map out the "state of play" – who would be appearing, the state of criminal investigations, and whether the trial could proceed based on the case's merits.
He also outlined the rights of the next-of-kin, explaining that they could address the court.
"The rights of the accused must also be given due process. The trial must be conducted fairly and in an impartial fashion. They are innocent until proven guilty by law."
Of the four charged, only Pulatov was represented. There were also nine lawyers representing 398 relatives of victims.
Today's proceedings were largely procedural, involving introductions and determining whether relatives of victims would like to exercise their right to address the court.
The judges also assessed whether the extensive case file from criminal investigations was complete.
The current format for the investigation and trial was chosen by the countries whose citizens perished in the crash after Russia used its veto in July 2015 at the United Nations to block a draft resolution to set up an international tribunal into the MH17 air disaster.
The case, officially assigned to the District Court of The Hague, had to be moved to JCS as the Palace of Justice in The Hague – the usual venue for the District Court – is not equipped to accommodate proceedings of this scale.
The District Court of The Hague is one of Netherlands' 11 district courts, reminiscent of lower courts in Malaysia with an avenue for appeal to higher courts.
The Netherlands also has four Courts of Appeal and one Supreme Court. Most cases start at a district court.