Hearings of the MH17 case resumed in the Netherlands

The downing of Boeing aircraft MH17 in the sky over the Donbas part uncontrolled by Ukraine in the summer of 2014 hearings will be resumed in the court in Hague today.

The defence will take the opportunity to make any inquiries into possible investigative action. After this, the hearing will be postponed until a response is received. The trial on the merits probably takes place in the fall.

“The prosecution would like the trial to start in the autumn, in October or November,” the Dutch prosecutor’s office said.

At the same time, the defence previously had explained that it “would not have enough time to submit all its requests” because it took more time to study the results of longstanding investigation of the disaster circumstances. Besides, one noted that there were difficulties in contacting the experts, as well as the defendant Oleg Pulatov under COVID-19 pandemic.

The preliminary stage of the hearings took place from the 8th to the 10th of June. The parties reported on the fulfilled work and told about the collected information.

Natalia Tolub