Let’s take a side step towards Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. It was from there that a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 took off on July 17, 2014, bound for Kuala Lumpur. Flight name: MH17. The plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing 298. The verdict of the court located near the airport is expected today.
But the three suspects, the Russians Igor Guirkin, Sergei Doubinsky and Oleg Poulatov as well as the Ukrainian Leonid Khartchenko, will however not be present in the courtroom. Still at large, they refused to attend the trial, which lasted two and a half years. According to the prosecution, they were part of the Kremlin-backed separatist forces and played a key role in bringing the BUK missile system to Ukraine from a military base in Russia, even if they did not press the trigger. Moscow has denied any involvement in the drama.