Judges, lawyers in MH17 trial visit wreckage of plane

Judges and lawyers in the trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian charged in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 have visited the wreckage of the plane at a Dutch military air base

GILZE-RIJEN AIR BASE, Netherlands -- Judges and lawyers in the trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian charged in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 visited the wreckage of the plane Wednesday at a Dutch military air base. Remnants of the Boeing 777 were laid out in a hangar at the Gilze-Rijen Air Base. The cockpit and front section of the fuselage were partially pieced together from wreckage recovered after the plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 passengers and crew members on board. Arlette Schijns, a lawyer representing families of victims, said the visit would help the next of kin who are “still searching after all these years for the truth and justice.” “As painful as it is to see the airplane, it is good that you are here, that your court sees for itself the material damage done to the plane," Schijns said. “Anybody who sees that can imagine that the immaterial suffering caused by this is immense.”