Testimony of MH17 families touches judges

Judges in the MH17 trial in The Netherlands found it ‘difficult’ listening to the testimony of siblings of one of the 298 victims, 12-year-old Dutch boy Rowan Bats.

Public prosecutor Ward Ferdinandusse at the MH17 trial in The Netherlands. Picture: AFP

Judges in the MH17 trial in The Netherlands found it “difficult’’ listening to the testimony of siblings of one of the 298 victims, 12-year-old Dutch boy Rowan Bats, as the families try to tell of their indescribable grief.

Rowan was travelling to Bali with his mother, having told his youngest brother, then aged one, that he wasn’t allowed to start walking until he returned from his holiday.

The baby, Sylvan, now eight, was asked what he thought about Rowan: “I think of Rowan when I go to sleep, I look at ­videos, I hold his urn in my hands. What happened to the plane is sad, nasty and sometimes I am angry at who killed Rowan.’’

Testimony from Rowan’s ­father, Peter, included words from Rowan’s younger sister, Kylie, now a teenager, who said the disaster had “taught me no end of mourning – it is not a weakness but the price of love’’.

Peter Bats was made redundant six weeks after the disaster. “How do you find a new job when one of your children was killed in the MH17 disaster?’’ he said.

Judge Steenhuis told him that all of the family stories hit a nerve but “the incorporated ­stories of your children is very touching’’.

Silene Fredriksz brought the urn containing the ashes of her son Bryce into the court.

She had been at work when her husband rang, shouting that the plane of Bryce and his girlfriend, Daisy Oehlers, had crashed. She tried to ring Malaysia Airlines but could only get a message to ring back during office hours; she was told by the Dutch department of foreign affairs they would ring back. “We are still waiting,’’ she said.

Her husband, Rob Fredriksz, told the court “It is said that men don’t cry but I bawled my eyes out”, at which point he struggled to complete his testimony. “Our sentence is for life,” he said

The remains of Bryce and Daisy were cremated together in a heart-shaped children’s coffin 14 months after MH17 was brought down, with more than 1000 people attending.

Ms Fredriksz also showed the court a piece of Daisy’s blouse that was burned around the edges, saying this meant more to her than receiving the bones. .

Most families are expected to give testimony to the court over the next three weeks, including relatives of the 38 Australian ­victims.

The court is expected to hand down a judgment sometime next year on the four men accused of the mass murder by shooting the plane down over eastern Ukraine with a Buk missile.

Oleg Pulatov is the only accused to have hired counsel to defend him. The case against the others – former Russian military intelligence officials turned separatist leaders Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinsky, and separatist battalion leader Leonid Kharchenko, of Ukraine – is being heard in absentia.

The trial continues.