SCHIPHOL, The Netherlands – Since her father and stepmother died in the 2014 hijacking of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17, Ria van der Steen has dealt with feelings of hatred, revenge, anger and fear.
She is not alone. Seven years later, Sander Essers still feels guilty about the death of his brother. And for Peter van der Meer, Father’s Day has become one of the most horrible days of the year, following the loss of his three daughters aged 12, 10 and 7 in the crash.
“I am a father without children, a father without children,” he said in an emotional speech. “It has been for seven years and for all future years.”
Finally, the relatives of the 298 passengers and crew killed on July 17, 2014, when a Buk missile blew up the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur above the sky over eastern Ukraine, devastated by the conflict, have the his opinion before the courts.
Under Dutch law, relatives are allowed to make an impact statement of the victim in court, without being asked any questions. Some 90 people are expected to do so over the next three weeks, some speaking through live video links from other countries.
“I think probably next to the verdict, it’s one of the most important days for family members, because they can talk to the court, but talking to the court, they talk to the suspects and also to the people responsible wherever they are. they hide, “said Peter Langstraat, a lawyer representing the relatives of the victims.” So this is a form of communication with the people responsible for this disaster. “
Van der Steen was the first to speak on Monday and explained to the court the psychological consequences of the tragedy on his life.
Dressed in black in the Schiphol airport lounge near Amsterdam, van der Steen spoke at length about the nightmares that woke her up screaming and the impossible farewell to her loved ones.
“I had to say goodbye to it so often,” he said. “The question is, how many times can you say goodbye? And when is it goodbye forever?”
Van der Steen said he started having nightmares shortly after learning of the death of his relatives, who had gone on holiday to Borneo. In his dreams, he was walking through fields in Ukraine looking for his father to let him know he had died.
“I saw the remains, the bodies, the personal belongings,” he recalled, “I couldn’t stop crying until I woke up screaming.”
After telling him that it would not be possible to identify the bodies of his loved ones, van der Steen finally learned that his father had been identified thanks to a small piece of bone in his hand.
“Fortunately, shortly after we received news that a small piece of bone from (my stepmother) Neeltje was found and that she too was identified,” said van der Steen, recalling the surprise he had when he was introduced. the two small bags of bones.
“I knew it was them, but emotionally I didn’t want to accept it,” he told the court.
Essers said his brother Peter called him about 20 minutes before boarding the plane.
“In a gloomy voice he said to me, literally,‘ Sander I’m afraid I won’t come back alive. He later said, “We are flying over a war zone.” I was very scared and he urgently asked me if I should get on the plane or not. “
Essers said he felt he had to reassure his brother.
“I often feel suddenly that I’m partly to blame for his death,” he said.
The trial opened in March 2020 and advanced through a long series of preliminary hearings before lawyers began debating the merits of the case in June. The complex case is expected to continue next year.
After years of extensive international investigation, prosecutors have charged four suspects – Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko – with multiple counts of murder for their alleged involvement in the flight abatement.
“To the perpetrators, seven years ago, you broke up my family in the worst way imaginable,” said Vanessa Rizk, testifying remotely from Australia. Vanessa and her brother James lost their parents in the crash.
“After seven years, I am determined that you will never break my spirit and my ability to live and love, just as my parents would have wanted,” he said.
Prosecutors say the plane was destroyed in the air when it was hit by a Buk missile system that was being flown to Ukraine from a Russian military base. Russia denies any involvement in the fall.
None of the suspects has appeared in court and only one – Pulatov – has lawyers representing him at trial. They have said he denies the charges.
“They lie, we know they’re lying and they know we know they’re lying,” van der Steen said, citing the late dissident Soviet dissident novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Last week, investigators asked the Russians to submit information on the deployment of the missile that, according to investigators, crashed the plane.