The MH17 trial

On Monday 7 June 2021 the District Court of The Hague will open the hearing on the merits in the MH17 criminal trial.

Now that the pretrial stage has been completed on 25 November 2020, the hearing on the merits is approaching.

The court delivered an interlocutory decision, rulings on all requests for investigation submitted by the defence and the Public Prosecution Service.

On 25 November 2020 the court shall decide which requests from the defence and which applications from the PPS will, and which will not be granted.

Yesterday and today were dedicated to the response from the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) to the requests for additional investigation presented by the defence.

Today the Public Prosecution Service took the floor in order to react to investigation requests which were submitted last week by counsel for the defence.

Over the past three days the defence had the floor and presented investigation requests

Today counsel for the defence took the floor again to elaborate on their investigation requests.

Today the defence had the floor

The defence will have the opportunity to submit the other requests for further investigation.

Progress by the defence. The members of counsel visited the Russian Federation and spoke with their client there.

One of the topics that will be discussed then is the progress made by the defence.

Counsel for the relatives: jurisdiction and applicable law as regards claims for damages. The defence requested that documents be added to the case file

Relatives of the victims, interested parties and media have the following possibilities to be present in the Justitieel Complex Schiphol.

The interlocutory decision in which the Court has decided on requests and applications has now been published on Rechtspraak.nl

At 10:00 a.m. the hearing will resume. At first the counsel for the relatives will have the opportunity to address the court.

The court decided on the applications and requests made by the public prosecution service, the defence and the counsel for the relatives (RBT).

This Friday 3 July at 1:30 p.m. it is expected that the court will takes decisions.

Today the prosecution took the floor, after the defence had addressed the court on 22 and 23 June 2020.

Over the last two days, the question has been put a number of times: at what point in the proceedings are we exactly?

On 22 June 2020 at 10.00 a.m. CET, the hearings will resume. The court is confident that the defence will submit its requests to it earlier if possible.

The prosecution has had the floor for the last 2.5 days and has provided an overview of the criminal investigation.

Today, the prosecution had the floor.

In the press centre of the Judicial Complex Schiphol, Judicial Spokespeople Paul Rouwen took stock of the day of the MH17 trial.

The trial will resume Monday 8 June. On 23 March 2020, the last hearing took place in the first block of hearings in the MH17 criminal trial.

Contrary to previous announcements, the press centre at Schiphol Judicial Complex will be open and host a maximum of 30 persons a day.

As scheduled, the MH17 criminal case will resume on Monday, 8 June next.