Dutch to present sentencing terms for MH17 suspects

THE HAGUE • Dutch prosecutors will this week set out their sentencing demands for four men on trial in absentia over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in war-torn Ukraine in 2014.

Prosecutors will also formally present the indictment during three days of hearings that started yesterday, charging the men with the murders of all 298 people on the Boeing 777.

The four suspects - Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko - have all refused to attend the trial in the Netherlands.

A verdict at the high-security court, near Amsterdam's Schiphol airport where MH17 took off on its doomed flight to Kuala Lumpur, is not expected until late next year at the earliest.

"The maximum penalty is life imprisonment," a court spokesman told AFP.

The hearings come as fresh tensions soar over Ukraine, with the West accusing Russia of planning an invasion of its neighbour.

International investigators say MH17 was shot down by a BUK missile, originally brought from a Russian military base, as it flew over a part of eastern Ukraine held by pro-Moscow separatists on July 17, 2014.

Bodies of victims, some of them still strapped into their seats, were strewn across sunflower fields along with the white, red and blue wreckage of the plane.

Girkin, 49, also known by his pseudonym "Strelkov", is the most high-profile suspect - a former Russian spy and historical re-enactment fan who helped kickstart the war in Ukraine.

Dubinsky, 57, who has also been linked with Russian intelligence, allegedly served as the separatists' military intelligence chief.

Pulatov, 53, is a former Russian special forces soldier and one of Dubinsky's deputies.

Kharchenko, 48, allegedly led a separatist unit in eastern Ukraine.

Pulatov is the only suspect to be represented by lawyers.

The court spokesman said prosecutors were to spend yesterday and today explaining evidence including telephone and electronic eavesdropping, the circumstances surrounding the missile, and the defendants themselves.

The sentencing demand is expected to follow tomorrow and will include an "extensive justification of the requested penalty", the spokesman said.

Prosecutors had said during the opening of the trial in March last year that if the court passed a sentence "we will do everything in our power to ensure that it is enforced, whether in the Netherlands or elsewhere".

The trial heard harrowing testimony from relatives earlier this year, who spoke of the heartbreak of the loss of children, parents and siblings, and called on "corrupt" Russia to provide justice.

Kiev has been battling a pro-Moscow insurgency in two breakaway regions bordering Russia since 2014, when the Kremlin annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

Western nations imposed tough sanctions on Russia amid international outrage over the shooting down of flight MH17.

Moscow has recently massed troops near Ukraine's borders and the West has for weeks accused it of planning an invasion, warning of massive consequences should a Russian attack be launched.

Russia denies the claims, with President Vladimir Putin seeking talks with his US counterpart Joe Biden and security guarantees to stand down his troops.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE