Deputy chief public prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer said the commencement of the trial did not mean investigations into the matter were over, hence the signing of the extension.
“Uncovering the truth is a very time consuming and methodical process. Tomorrow (Monday) the Netherlands will begin the trial of the four suspects.
“For me, the trial is an important step towards finding truth and accountability. The duration of the investigation has put a heavy burden on the families and friends of the MH17 victims,” he said in a statement.
Van Boetzelaer said representatives of investigative bodies from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, Ukraine and the Netherlands signed the extension to ensure the investigative process “runs in parallel” with the ongoing trial.
“Today’s prolongation of the JIT-partner agreement reinforces five years of effective mutual cooperation and confirms its continuation. The partners have again expressed their confidence in the Dutch legal system,” the statement read.
MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down with a Russian-made surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, leaving no survivors.
Wreckage of the Boeing 777 fell to the ground in fields surrounding the Ukrainian village of Hrabove in territory held by pro-Russian separatists fighting Ukrainian government forces.
The four defendants in the trial – Russians Sergey Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Igor Girkin, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko – were identified by the JIT and had senior positions in the pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The JIT said they had not pulled the trigger, but colluded to carry out the attack.
The defendants are at large and are not expected to show up for the hearings at a high-security courtroom near Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport where they will be prosecuted under Dutch law. One of them, however, is expected to be represented by Dutch lawyers.
The trial begins at 10am local time (5pm in Malaysia) with the first few days expected to be a “stocktaking” of sorts by the judiciary.