Requests by the defence
The court has decided as follows regarding the requests by the defence:
The reports from Almaz-Antey from 2015 and 2016 will be added to the prosecution file.
The court is allowing for the possibility that the investigating judge will enable the experts from Almaz-Antey, the Netherlands Aerospace Centre and the Belgian Royal Military Academy, who will be interviewed before the investigating judge, to view the wreckage, if such is necessary to understand the reports properly.
The Public Prosecution Service needs to check whether the Dutch Safety Board has photographs that have not yet been provided to the defence to peruse, and whether those photographs could be given to the defence after all.
As for investigating voice recognition, the court has decided that the defendant shall be granted the opportunity to identify the intercepted calls where he recognises himself no later than 22 February 2021. Those intercepted calls may then be used as points of reference to investigate other intercepted calls.
The other requests by the defence are rejected.
Scheduling claims for compensation
With respect to scheduling hearings on the claims for compensation by the relatives, the court has said that a definitive schedule will be possible only once the bulk of the claims has been received, so that the court has gained sufficient insight into them.
Inspection of the reconstruction
Regarding a possible inspection of the reconstruction, the court has said that a decision can be taken only once the experts have been interviewed by the investigating judge. If it then becomes clear that the experts have different opinions as to the weapon that may have been used and the firing site, an inspection will be conducted. Because an inspection is a vast exercise, the Public Prosecution Service is already tasked with preparing it.
The way forward
The hearing has been adjourned today and will resume on 15 April 2021 at 10.00 a.m
Watch the livestream footage here:
Livestream 8 Februari 2021