Dutch judges to deliver verdicts in MH17 downed plane trial

SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (AP) — It still happens to Silene Frederiksz-Hoogzand after more than eight years. Walking down the street, she will see a girl with long, dark hair or a young man in a baseball cap and think, that's my son Bryce or his girlfriend, Daisy.

But the grim reality quickly kicks in. Bryce and Daisy were among the 298 people killed on July 17, 2014, when a missile shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 above conflict-torn eastern Ukraine.

“Sometimes, when you are low, you hear them. ‘Pap, pap. Dad, dad,’ and then you remember that this fake. But you feel it,” said Silene's husband, Rob.

The couple have attended almost every day of a drawn-out trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian charged in the Netherlands with murder for their alleged involvement in shooting down the Boeing 777 that was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

On Thursday, they will be in court again as the panel of Dutch judges delivers its verdicts in the case. While the outcome is unclear, one thing is certain — none of the four suspects will be there as they have not been arrested and are being tried in their absence. That means that even if they're convicted, they're unlikely to serve any prison sentence.

The verdicts are being delivered against a backdrop of all-out war in Ukraine triggered by Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of its neighbor and the case could set an example for the prosecution by courts in Europe of crimes committed during the war and other conflicts.

None of the suspects is alleged to have actually fired the Buk missile. According to Dutch prosecutors, the three Russians and a Ukrainian worked closely together to procure the missile and launcher, known as a telar, and its crew. It allegedly was fired from an agricultural field in rebel-held territory in Ukraine that...