Dutch Court Suspends Hearings in MH17 Crash Case Until 28 September

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – A Dutch court has suspended hearings in the MH17 crash case until 28 September, presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis said at a hearing on Monday.

A new block of hearings in the MH17 case in the Netherlands began on Monday. It was initially supposed that the first session of the hearings would last until 11 September.

On 28 September, the hearings will continue at 10:00 (08:00 GMT), the judge said.

He also said that the inquiries previously filed by the defence had been forwarded to the investigating judge. It is expected that a reply would be heard at future meetings. Then the defence will prepare for new requests.

MH17 was shot down on July 17, 2014, in eastern Ukraine on its way to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam. All 298 people aboard died.

The trial of four suspects — Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian national Leonid Kharchenko — began in March in the Netherlands.

The Joint Investigative Team (JIT), which is looking into the case, believes that the Boeing was shot down from with a weapon belonging to a Russian military unit. JIT, headed by the Dutch prosecutors, does not include Russian representatives.

Russia has said that it gave the Netherlands radar data and documents proving that the missile that hit the plane belonged to Ukraine and was launched from the territory controlled by Kiev. However, this information was not taken into account. The Russian Foreign Ministry has called the JIT accusations against Russia one-sided and regrettable.

Sourse: sputniknews.com