The Dutch court announced on Tuesday that the hearings on the MH17 crash have been postponed until 23 March.
The trial of four suspects in the case — Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian national Leonid Kharchenko — began in the Hague on Monday.
The Boeing 777 of Malaysia Airlines heading to Amsterdam from Kuala Lumpur was downed near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014. All 298 people aboard, mainly Malaysian and Dutch citizens, were killed in the incident.
Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics in the east of the country blamed each other for the downing. The US and a number of European nations blamed the incident on Russia, a claim that was made even before an official investigation was launched, with the West repeatedly citing Russia being at odds with Ukraine over Crimea and Donbass.
Following the crash, the Netherlands established the Joint Investigative Team (JIT) to conduct an inquiry into the case. Moscow, however, was excluded from the investigation process but conducted its own research.
As a result of its investigation, the JIT has accused four individuals – three Russians and a Ukrainian – of playing a significant role in the incident.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has described the investigation as “biased and one-sided”, saying that the investigators have ignored evidence provided by Russia, including Russian radar readings.
Besides the JIT, the incident was investigated by the Dutch Safety Board, which pointed out mistakes on the Ukrainian side, notably their failure to close the country’s airspace amid the raging conflict in the area.
Commenting on the results of the investigation, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir said that he was “unhappy” with the findings as it was all about blaming Russia from the very beginning.
