Police have detained Dutch journalist Michel Spekkers at Schipol airport in Amsterdam for attempting to smuggle pieces of the MH17 passenger plane [shot down over eastern Ukraine] into the Netherlands. Law-enforcement officials said parts of bodies from dead passengers aboard the plane could possibly be among them.

According to the Internet portal European Pravda, citing Nltimes.nl, the journalist was returning from Ukraine, where he visited the site of the crash, which occurred on July 17, 2014. All 298 passengers on board were killed. The reporter visited Donetsk, where he filmed a documentary film about life in the war-torn region. He decided to visit the MH17 crash site after he learned pieces from the downed aircraft were still there.

Dutch prosecutors were quoted as saying "bags with metal details and objects, along with what could be body parts," would be examined.

An international investigation group on September 28, 2016 in the Netherlands presented results of their criminal investigation into the cause of the MH17 crash. The group concluded that MH17 was shot down by a 9M38 BUK-TELAR missile launched from a field in near a village controlled by Russia-backed militants. Their report said the missile system was brought into Ukraine from Russia and returned to Russia after the downing of the plane. Russian leaders and military authorities deny any involvement.