Relatives sat listening with bowed heads and eyes closed as the names of all 298 victims of a
missile strike on a Malaysian airliner were read out in a Dutch court on Monday as the murder trial of four fugitive defendants began.
Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was hit by a surface-to-air missile on July 17, 2014 while flying over Ukrainian territory held by pro-Russian rebels fighting government forces.
None of the accused in the disaster - three Russians and a Ukrainian - were present in the courtroom and all four are believed to be in Russia.