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The court of The Hague will rule on 17 November in the extensive criminal case
concerning the downing of flight MH17. The verdict will take about an hour and
a half, the court said on Monday.
 
In the plane crash on 17 July 2014, all 298 people on board, including many
Dutch people, were killed. Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 departed that day
from Schiphol with destination Kuala Lumpur. However, the Malaysian capital
was never reached, the plane was shot down in eastern Ukraine, where an armed
battle was also going on at the time.
 
After years of investigation by the international investigative team JIT, four
suspects emerged: rebel leader Igor Girkin, his right-hand man Sergei
Dubinsky, his assistant Oleg Pulatov and garrison commander Leonid
Chartshenko. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the men played a
role in bringing in or removing the Buk missile installation that would have
shot the plane out of the sky. All four have not shown themselves in the
secure court at Schiphol, where the trial is taking place. Pulatov is the only
one who is assisted by lawyers. He denies any involvement.
 
The monster trial started on March 9, 2020. An important and fraught part of
the process was the part in which the next of kin had their say. For three
weeks, dozens of relatives told in court or via a video link what the disaster
meant to them. The court president mentioned this again last June, during the
last day of the hearing. He called it brave and said the process "has made a
big impression on all of us".
 
Another hearing will follow on September 22, but this is a formality that is
not expected to last more than five minutes. Although the chance of this is
small, the court emphasizes that something important to the investigation can
always happen, as a result of which the judgment date will still change.

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