Prosecutors demand life sentences in MH17 downing

Schiphol (Netherlands): Dutch prosecutors on Wednesday demanded life sentences for four suspects in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, saying they caused “deep and irreversible suffering” to relatives of the 298 people killed.

Prosecutors said the four recklessly used a Russian missile to bring down the passenger jet, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

Public prosecutor Manon Ridderbeks made the sentence demand on the third day of a presentation of evidence supporting the indictment. The suspects are being tried in absentia.

“The downing of MH17 with a Buk missile brutally ended the lives of all 298 people on board. Incredibly deep and irreversible suffering has been caused to the next of kin,” Ridderbeks told the court.

Anton Kotte, who lost his son, daughter-in-law and his 6-yearold grandson when MH17 was shot down, said the sentence demand felt like “a new start,” but he added that with prosecution arguments and the deliberation of judges still to come, and the possibility for appeals, justice still felt a long way off.

“We just started coming in the right direction ... but the outcome will be in the future,” he said outside court.

Life sentences are rare in the Netherlands, where the sentence means the convicted person spending the rest of their life in prison.

But Ridderbeks said it was necessary in the MH17 downing because of the extreme nature of the crime and to act as a deterrent. –(AP)