AMSTERDAM: The names of all 298 passengers and crew of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was read out today during the start of criminal proceedings against four people accused of shooting down the plane close to six years ago.
The names were clearly read out by prosecutor Dedy Woei-a-Tsoi when she was called by presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis to present her case.
The presentation of all names took about 20 minutes and was a moving reminder of the large numbers of lives lost and the scale of the crime.
Some family members of victims were present in Courtroom D of the Schiphol Judicial Court (JCS) complex in Badhoevedorp here, while others watched the proceedings, which started at 10am (5pm Malaysian time), livestreamed on giant screens in adjacent courtrooms.
The courtrooms and press centre next to the JCS complex was filled to capacity.
Woei-a-Tsoi also read out a list of all countries that lost their citizens in the crime.
"In the opinion of prosecution services, a deadly weapon, a BUK TELAR missile transported to eastern Ukraine hit MH17. The deadly weapon was then returned. All the accused are summoned for causing MH17 to crash and the murder of 298 people."
Presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis said the heavy silence in court when the names were read out "makes it abundantly clear that everyone is sitting here lost in their thoughts".
He announced a short break in proceedings at the end of the reading.
Family members of victims had earlier indicated that such a gesture would be very meaningful for them.
Criminal proceedings against Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko started today, close to six years after MH17 was shot out of the sky over eastern Ukraine.
Expectedly, the four did not appear at the District Court of The Hague sitting at the JCS complex. They were tried in absentia after the court established that they had been served the writ of summons but were not present.
The Boeing 777 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 also included Malaysians, Australians, Britons, and 13 other nationalities.
Three judges – Hendrik Steenhuis, Dagmar Koster and Heleene Kersten-Fockens – presided over the case, with two other judges acting in a reserve capacity.
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.