In the Netherlands, today, December 20, there is a regular court hearing in the case of MH17. The indictment will be read out by the prosecutor's office in Schiphol court complex. This is reported by NOS.
"The prosecutor's office will read the indictment this week. Prosecutors need three days to tell how they assess the evidence in the case, what exactly, in their opinion, the three Russians and one Ukrainian can be accused of and what punishment should be imposed," writes the publication.
According to the prosecutor's office, all the accused played a role in the organization, installation and later withdrawal of the Buk missile launcher, which was used to shoot down the Malaysia Airlines plane in the summer of 2014.
"The prosecutor's office reconstructed this on the basis of a large number of photos, videos and witness statements. There are also intercepted conversations in which the suspects talked about installing the missile and shooting down MH17. This will be reviewed today and tomorrow, as will the forensic evidence," the report specifies.
Obviously, prosecutors will ask for a lengthy sentence, but whether it will be life imprisonment is not known in advance.
"The fact is that MH17 was shot down intentionally. It doesn't matter for the question of guilt, but it may matter for the punishment," said international criminal law expert Merike De Hohn.
She expects that the sentence could also be different for each suspect depending on the role they played in shooting down the plane.