Court to rule in MH17 case today; Relatives hoping for answers

Over eight years after the downing of flight MH17 and more than 2.5 years after the trial started against the first four suspects, the court will rule on Thursday. On 17 July 2014, the Malaysia Airlines flight from Schiphol to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed, including almost 200 Dutch people.

According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), pro-Russian separatists deployed the BUK missile that brought down the plane. They may not have realized that it was a passenger flight.

After years of international investigation, the OM is prosecuting four men: rebel leader Igor Girkin, his right-hand man Sergey Dubinsky, his assistant Oleg Pulatov, and garrison commander Leonid Chartchenko. These three Russians and Ukrainian are charged with causing the death of all 298 people on board MH17. According to the OM, they played a role in bringing and taking away the BUK missile installation. An armed conflict was going on in the area at the time. The OM demanded life in prison against all four men.

The suspects did not appear in court during the trial. Only Pulatov hired lawyers to represent him. He denies any involvement and called the investigation against him unreliable. “The evidence presented by the prosecution is inconclusive, unreliable, and in some respects, based on conjecture and, in its entirety, insufficient to serve as a basis for a court verdict,” Pulatov said in a video message earlier this year. He said he hoped for a “just and lawful verdict. I beg you to acquit me.”

The court will deliver the verdict on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. in the Judicial Complex near Schiphol. It is expected to take approximately two hours.

MH17 relative Piet Ploeg, chairman of Stichting Vliegramp MH17, hopes the verdict will provide answers for the victims’ loved ones. But he doesn’t expect the ruling to close this chapter for him. For many surviving relatives, the past few years have been dominated by the search for answers: how, who, and especially, why?

According to Ploeg, over 200 relatives will attend the verdict on Thursday. Others will follow it via live stream. Ploeg does not dare make any predictions about the case's outcome, but he certainly hopes that more will become clear about Russia’s role. “There was a lot of talk about the BUK system and the firing location during the trial. And the answers to those questions will have to come.”

The OM established that MH17 was shot down with a BUK missile from an agricultural field in an area controlled by pro-Russian separatists. The BUK system was allegedly brought to Ukraine from Russia because the separatists were suffering heavy losses, the OM said. If the court indeed concludes that the firing location is the agricultural field and that the BUK system was brought from Russia, Ploeg explained, this says something about Russia’s role. “It can’t be that if you’re involved as a state, you can get away with it.”

The relatives want to know what happened. “And that justice is done,” said Ploeg. He lost his brother, his sister-in-law, and their son in the crash. “And this is also about flight safety in general.” The chairman of Stichting Vliegramp MH17 was present at almost all court days. There have been over 60. He missed a few because he was sick.

He is clear about whether this ruling can create a sense of closure. “Just put yourself in the shoes of people who have lost children,” he said. “But I do hope that people will get some room to distance themselves. Find a way to continue, even with a possible appeal. I hope so for them.”