THE WORLD TODAY

Initial decisions made in trial for MH17 flight

THE trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian charged with multiple murder for their alleged roles in shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014 resumed briefly on Monday as the presiding judge read out a number of preliminary decisions.

The court was almost empty due to restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

Decisions on several requests by prosecutors for further investigations were delayed to give defence lawyers for one of the defendants more time to prepare.

Among decisions taken by the court since the trial opened on March 9, Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis authorised prosecutors to give lawyers for family members of the 298 people who died on the plane access to limited parts of the investigation dossier.

After a hearing of just under 45 minutes, the case was adjourned until June 8, when defence lawyers for one of the suspects will be allowed to make preliminary objections such as challenging the Dutch court’s jurisdiction to stage the trial. None of the suspects is attending the trial and only one – Russian Oleg Pulatov – has appointed defence lawyers to represent him.

When the trial opened earlier this month, the court was packed with lawyers, judges, family members of the dead and media. But on Monday judges sat separated from one another by an empty seat, the number of prosecutors, lawyers and other staff was reduced and family and media were not allowed to attend.

The flight, known as MH17, was shot down on July 17 2014 by a Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatist rebels as flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. it