Four go to trial on flight MH17 charges

Four men went on trial on Monday in connection with the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in a landmark case at a high-security court complex in the Netherlands.

The four suspects will be prosecuted－in absentia－for causing the crash and will face charges of murdering all 298 passengers and crew members on board the Boeing 777 that was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, when it was brought down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile.

Three are Russians－Igor Girkin, a former colonel of Russia's FSB spy service; Sergei Dubinsky, employed by Russia's GRU military intelligence agency; and Oleg Pulatov, a former soldier with the GRU's Spetsnaz special forces unit.

A fourth is a Ukrainian citizen, Leonid Kharchenko. More suspects could face charges as the investigations continue.

Russia said it played no part in the shooting-down of the jet. Its Foreign Ministry has warned that unsubstantiated claims should be regarded with skepticism given the amount of "fake news" that's been generated by the disaster.

Moscow also rejected the investigation as one-sided and put forward its own theories as to what happened, alleging that Ukrainian forces that also have Buk missile systems were to blame.

The scale of the trial is unprecedented in Dutch law, said Marieke de Hoon, an assistant professor of international law at Vrije University Amsterdam. The international investigation and prosecution are taking place in the Netherlands because most of the victims－193 people－were Dutch.

"We've never seen anything like this in the Dutch system, it is huge," she told the Associated Press. "There are so many victims, there are so many victims' relatives, and they all have the right also to be part of the proceedings－to speak, to claim damages if there is a guilty verdict."

The opening days of the trial will involve judges taking stock of the investigation so far. Prosecutors will summarize their case, but evidence is unlikely to be examined until hearings later this year.

Dutch Public Prosecutions Service liaison officer Alwin Dam said families and friends will be allowed to give victim impact statements, claim compensation and tell the court what they think appropriate punishments should be.

"People want a very severe punishment and we understand that, of course," Dam said. None of the accused will be present in court, but Pulatov will be represented by three lawyers.

Thirteen of the witnesses due to give evidence in the case are expected to have their identities protected when they address the court because they face "significant risks" to their safety, according to the Dutch public prosecution service.