Families of downed flight MH17 hope truth emerges from unprecedented trial
- A trial starts Monday in the Netherlands for three Russians linked to their country’s security and intelligence services and a Ukrainian rebel commander
- The suspects most likely will stay away and be tried in absentia under Dutch law
United by grief across oceans and continents, families who lost loved ones when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in 2014 hope that a trial starting next week will finally deliver something that has remained elusive ever since: The truth.
A trial starts on Monday in the Netherlands for three Russians linked to their country’s security and intelligence services and a Ukrainian rebel commander. They are accused of mass murder for their alleged roles in shooting down the Boeing 777 on July 17, 2014, as it passed over conflict-torn eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew.
For the families of the victims, the trial is the latest development in a constant stream of news since they received devastating phone calls telling them that their loved ones had been killed.
Silene Fredriksz-Hoogzand’s life as she knew it ended that summer day.
Her son Bryce and his girlfriend, Daisy, were killed when a missile fired from territory controlled by pro-Russian rebels tore the passenger jet apart, sending wreckage and bodies raining down onto fields of sunflowers in eastern Ukraine. The debris field spread across some 50 square kilometres (20 square miles).