Criminal proceedings start against four suspects charged with bringing down MH17
Today, the first court session at the Schiphol Judicial Complex (JCS) against the four suspects has been commenced at 10.00 am. The four men will be prosecuted for causing the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) alleges Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, Sergey Nikolayevich Dubinskiy, Oleg Yuldashevich Pulatov, Leonid Volodymyrovych Kharchenko obtained and deployed the BUK TELAR at the firing location with the aim of shooting down an aircraft.
The Dutch Public Prosecution Service will summon the four suspects for:
- causing the crash of flight MH17, resulting in the death of all persons on board, punishable pursuant to Article 168 of the Dutch Criminal Code;
- the murder of the 298 persons on board of flight MH17, punishable pursuant to Article 289 of the Dutch Criminal Code.
The texts and the entire indictment will be published by the Public Prosecution Service on the OM-site as soon as it has been announced in the courtroom by the public prosecutors Ferdinandusse, Berger and Woei-a-Tsoi.
Q&A
After the session, deputy chief prosecutor and leader of the MH17 team, Digna van Boetzelaer will answer questions by the media at the media centre of the JCS.