"Where no case is made out against a man, or such a flimsy one that it cannot stand on its feet, he is entitled to say: 'I ask the jury to say that I am not guilty without hearing a word from me.'"
That sentence was written almost sixty years ago by one of the most brilliant tellers of courtroom stories in the English language, Henry Cecil.
Nom de plume of an English county court judge, Cecil put the words in the mouth of the barrister for the defendant, in his summing-up for the jury. The story is a whodunit, with much of Cecil's characteristic poking of fun and then, at the end — well, a surprise I shan't reveal.
In the tale of the trial of four defendants accused of murder in the shooting-down of Malaysia Airlines MH17, there are no jokes. But the proceedings which commenced at Schiphol, in The Netherlands, on March 9 and adjourned on March 23 for ten weeks, did have a surprise ending. That is also the point of Cecil's defence speech. The point is that the Dutch prosecutors have revealed the case they are making out against the defendants, and also, they insist, against the Russian state, is such a flimsy one, it cannot stand on its own feet. It should therefore be dismissed by the panel of three judges.
Recognizing this in his first ruling, issued on
March 23, Hendrik Steenhuis, the presiding judge, gave the prosecution, the Dutch Government behind them, and the US Government behind them, one last chance.
This was his order to produce in court the crucial piece of evidence on which the case of murder depends - the US satellite images which US officials have long claimed to prove the firing of a BUK missile at MH17 and to have reported in secret to Dutch intelligence.
But since the evidence of the chief of Dutch military intelligence, and also of the investigating police and prosecutors - official secrets now leaked in public - is that the US has not provided the evidence, the judge's order is an ultimatum.
Comment: Iran is another country under sanctions and recently the US actually increased them: US hopes sanctions & Covid-19 in Iran will force regime change - but it's a mass murder that will only strengthen Tehran govt