By BRUSSELS. Nov 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The District Court of The Hague, having completed its consideration of the case of the downed Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in the skies over the Ukrainian Donbas on July 17, 2014, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, will announce its decision on Thursday afternoon. It is not known how long the announcement will last.
This was reported to the Interfax-Ukraine agency in The Hague District Court.
According to the agency interlocutor, the announcement will take place at the Schiphol court complex, where the entire trial, which began on March 9, 2019, took place, as well as the process itself will be similar. "The court will announce the decision in an oral form in open session, briefly explaining how they came to the decision. The start is scheduled for 14:30, but it is not known how long the reading of the decision will last. The hearing will be held in the same way as all other days of hearings, a temporary press center has been created for the media in the courtroom, where there is an opportunity to broadcast live," the court said.
The court refrained from saying exactly how many relatives and friends of the victims are expected on the day of the decision. "We expect that there will be great interest in the announcement of the decision, but we cannot name specific figures."
Similarly, the court answered the question about the number of media representatives, as well as about which countries, including the Russian Federation, they will be from. "The interest from the press is very great, but we cannot make any statements about the number, as well as about which media will be represented," the agency interlocutor commented.
Speaking about the possibility of the parties – the prosecution and the defense to appeal the decision, the court explained that for the prosecutor’s office and the accused who appeared, the appeal period is 14 days after the verdict is rendered. "For suspects who did not appear and who were not represented by the defense, the 14-day period begins only from the day when the suspect became aware of the verdict. Therefore, there must be circumstances from which it follows that he has familiarized himself with the verdict. Such a circumstance may be that he reacts to a statement in the media," the court detailed.
In addition, according to the agency interlocutor, in the Netherlands, one can appeal twice – once to the Court of Appeal, then to the Supreme Court.
Regarding the enforcement of the sentence, he stated in court that it was not part of his duties. "The court’s duty is to make the verdict public, including by broadcasting it live, publishing it for review and issuing a press release. Informing the accused and putting the sentence into effect is the responsibility of the prosecutor’s office," the court explained.
Answering the question of whether the court will ask to transfer to the Netherlands to serve the sentence of one of the accused – Igor Girkin, for whose capture a reward of $100,000 is promised, and who can currently fight as part of the occupying Russian troops, the agency interlocutor answered briefly: "The prosecutor’s office is responsible for this."
Answering the question whether the factor of the war that Russia is waging against Ukraine played any role in the court’s decision, including as another proof that the Russian Federation is behind the supply of the Buk system from which MH17 was shot down, the representative of the court replied that "if the court finds something -either on this occasion, it will be reflected in the verdict."
The court rejected the possibility that the court’s decision could be politically motivated, as the Russian side can say, which has repeatedly stated that the results of the investigation into the MH17 disaster were politically motivated. "The court’s task is to administer justice after a fair, transparent and publicly visible process. The court is not about politics," the court assured.
As is known, according to the results of the investigation into the crash of flight MH17, the prosecutor’s office has brought charges against three Russian citizens and one Ukrainian: Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Leonid Kharchenko. The charges were brought under two articles of the Criminal Code of the Netherlands – for the fact that they caused the crash of flight MH17, which killed 298 passengers (Article168) and for the murder of 298 passengers of flight MH17 (Article 289). The punishment was requested in the form of life imprisonment.
None of them appeared in the courtroom, and only one defendant – Pulatov – was represented by Dutch lawyers, in connection with which the cases were heard simultaneously, but not together, since the defense, participating in the trial, exercised the right to file petitions and request additional investigations.
