A Dutch policeman has been suspended from duty and arrested on suspicion of embezzlement for allegedly attempting to sell souvenirs from Flight MH17, the Malaysia Airlines jet shot down over eastern Ukraine last year with the loss of 298 passengers and crew.
The man tried to sell items he claimed were associated with the flight, including what he said was a piece of the hull of the Boeing 777, a jacket and cap worn by an investigator at the crash site, and even a packet of Malaysia Airlines tissues apparently found at the scene.
The items were placed for sale on the auction website Marktplaats.nl – the Dutch equivalent of eBay – but the advertisement was removed last weekend after a spokesperson for the company said they had decided it was both "objectionable and unethical".
Before it was taken down the advert said the items could be displayed as “a wall decoration featuring items from the MH17 disaster” and could be purchased “as a collection” for €1,500.
Marktplaats said it was co-operating fully with the police investigation, and had removed the “offensive” advert immediately it had been pointed out. It said it remained unclear whether any of the pieces advertised had actually been sold, either individually or as a lot.
Police have refused to reveal the officer’s name or to give any further details of the case, although there have been reports that he is male and from the eastern city of Apeldoorn. A spokesperson said he was first taken in for questioning, and then arrested on Sunday.
The regional public prosecutor’s office has confirmed that a criminal investigation is under way.
Police sources say the priority now is to establish which of the items – if any – actually came from the MH17 crash site near the tiny village of Hrabove, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where debris from the crash was spread over an area of 50sq km.
Clearly if any of the items, especially the piece of hull, is genuine, it could constitute evidence for the twin investigations into the attack on the jet – one an international civil investigation led by the Dutch Safety Board and the other a criminal inquiry by the Dutch public prosecutor.
Experts say they are confident that forensic tests can determine whether the portion of hull, in particular, is genuine given the large quantity of wreckage repatriated to the Netherlands and used in a partial reconstruction of the jet's airframe.
This is not the first controversy to distress relatives of the MH17 victims. Last April an eminent medical anthropologist was fired from the forensics team tasked with identifying the dead after he used photographs of body parts without authorisation to illustrate a public lecture.
