OREANDA-NEWS  The District Court of The Hague does not plan to issue sentences to the defendants in the case of the crash of the Malaysian Boieng 777, flight MH17, in the Donetsk region until the end of 2021. This information was provided by Judge Maria Knaif, who is in charge of working with the media.

She noted that several blocks of hearings are planned for 2021, which will last until 2022.

Knife added that the court plans to begin hearing the case on the merits on June 7. Presumably in September the relatives of the victims will be able to exercise their right to go to court.

A Malaysia Airlines plane flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. All 298 people on board were killed. According to investigators, the Boieng 777 was shot down by a missile from a Buk system belonging to the Russian side.

Now, the former head of intelligence of the self-proclaimed DPR Sergey Dubinsky, ex-deputy head of intelligence Oleg Pulatov, FSB officer and ex-Minister of Defense of the DPR Igor Girkin and militia Leonid Kharchenko are involved in the plane crash case.

The defense side previously suggested considering alternative versions of the crash: that the plane was shot down by a fighter or that the missile was launched from an anti-aircraft complex of the Ukrainian army. The Hague court refused to consider them.