Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Wednesday that he had an "insightful" meeting with the experts of the Netherlands-led Joint Investigation Team in Ukraine in the case of MH17 flight crash in Donbas in 2014
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2022) Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Wednesday that he had an "insightful" meeting with the experts of the Netherlands-led Joint Investigation Team in Ukraine in the case of MH17 flight crash in Donbas in 2014.
Hoekstra arrived in Ukraine for a visit along with Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday to discuss the Ukrainian crisis and other matters.
"Important and insightful meeting with experts of the Joint Investigation Team. The Netherlands remains committed to finding the truth and seeking justice for the 298 victims of #MH17 and their loved ones. We appreciate Ukraine's continued close cooperation," Hoekstra tweeted.
The trial in the MH17 crash began on March 9, 2020, in the Netherlands. The defendants in the case are Russian citizens Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian national Igor Kharchenko. Pulatov is represented at the court by an international group, while the other suspects are being tried in absentia. The trial on the merits began on June 8, 2021.
In December, the Dutch prosecution demanded that all four defendants be sentenced to life imprisonment.
The MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed near the city of Donetsk on July 17, 2014. All 298 passengers, mostly Dutch, and crew members were killed. Interim conclusions presented by the Joint Investigation Team, which does not include Russia, suggested that the plane was downed by a Russian-made Buk missile originating from a military brigade stationed in the Russian city of Kursk.
Moscow has dismissed the conclusions as baseless and biased, stressing that the Netherlands ignored all the documentation and data handed over by the Russian side, according to which the Buk missile that hit the plane belonged to Ukraine and was launched from Kiev-controlled territories. According to the Dutch prosecution, it has studied the information provided by Russia.
