The trial of the four men accused of shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, will continue on March 23 as scheduled before the District Court of The Hague, but with a limited presence due to Covid-19.

According to the website of the District Court of The Hague in the Schiphol Judicial Complex (JCS) in Amsterdam, it was recently announced that due to the coronavirus situation, trials will be delayed in all courts in the Netherlands, with only urgent trials continuing.

As such, the District Court announced that the next session of the MH17 trial on March 23, will proceed but with a limited presence.

Only one public prosecutor will be present instead of three, while the court will not allow the press nor the public to be present.

“This means that next-of-kin cannot attend the court session at JCS nor attend at the NBC building at Nieuwegein. However, the live stream will remain active and accessible to all,” the District Court said.

It also stated that during the session on March 23, the judges are expected to make some decisions and provide their reasoning.

“This court session (March 23) will likely be the last court day from this block. The next block will start on June 8, 2020,” it said.

On March 9, criminal proceedings against the four men, Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov, as well as Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, began.

However, none of them appeared in court, and as such, the court decided that the four defendants would be tried in absentia under Dutch law.

They have been charged with the downing of flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, resulting in the death of all 298 persons on board, punishable pursuant to Article 168 of the Dutch Criminal Code, and for murdering all on board, punishable pursuant to Article 289 of the same code. If convicted, they will be sentenced to life imprisonment or a 30-year imprisonment term, without parole.

Judge Hendrik Steenhuis, who presided over the trial with two other judges, namely Dagmar Kosters and Helen Kersterns-Fockens, had on March 10 adjourned the trial to March 23.

A source has told Bernama that Malaysian representatives who are part of the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT), will not attend the March 23 session due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

“But our embassy representatives will be there and we are also in continuous contact with the Dutch prosecutor's office,” the source said.

In his opening remarks on the first day of the trial, Judge Steenhuis had begun proceedings by explaining the functions of the court, the duty of the prosecution and the defence, and the background of the case.

The judge said, among others, that the consequences of the downing of the Boeing 777 aircraft on the families of the victims, were almost inconceivable.

“And the heavy silence in this room when the names of all who lost their lives were being read out, made abundantly clear that everybody was sitting here lost in their thoughts,” he said.

The judge said this after prosecutor Dedy Woei-A-Tsoi had completed reading out one-by-one, the names of all 298 people killed on board flight MH17 when it was shot down while flying over eastern Ukraine.

- Bernama