The public stage of the trial of the downed MH17 case may be completed on June 10, after which the panel of judges will go to the closed stage to make a decision.

This follows from the further schedule of court hearings announced by the presiding judge Hendrick Steinhaus.

He said that on March 13, the defense of the accused Oleg Pulatov completed the announcement of their arguments, and the hearings were suspended until today. Earlier, the prosecution presented its arguments. Thus the adversarial phase of the trial was completed. Steinhaus said the trial of the case involving four defendants, three Russians (Igor Girkin (Strelkov), Sergey Dubinsky, Pulatov and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko) is taking place simultaneously, but not jointly, since Pulatov is represented by lawyers who take an active part in the trial hearings.

The presiding judge said that in today's session, representatives of the relatives will respond to the positions of the prosecution and defense, after which the floor will be given to the prosecution. Three days are planned for this. "After that, on June 8, Pulatov's defense will again be given the opportunity to react. Three days will be allotted for this, after which the case will go to the stage when the court will begin to consider the decision," Steinhaus said.

The judge also said he had previously named the dates on which the court intends to announce its decision – these are September 22, November 17 and December 15, 2022. "The court expects that it will not be realistic to announce the decision on September 22, so on that day the court informs that the hearing will be postponed, but we will not be able to say exactly when the court session will resume," he said.