MH17: Personal belongings of tragedy victims to be returned to families - Liow

The personal belongings of the victims of the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH17 tragedy will be returned to their families after the identification and examination process has been completed by the investigation team led by the Netherlands, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said today.

He said he could not give an exact date when it would be done as the main focus now was the identification of the remains of the victims, currently taking place in Hilversum in the Netherlands.

"It is a little bit difficult because, only if there is a name intact, can we actually send the belongings to the respective families," he told reporters after presenting Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) scholarships to 61 Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) students from independent Chinese high schools, here.

He said an online discussion with the Netherlands was conducted daily at 6pm to obtain the latest information on the investigation, including the date for the release of the remains.

The date for bringing the remains to Malaysia would only be announced once the remains were released by the Netherlands, he said.

Flight MH17 went down in eastern Ukraine on July 17 as it was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 283 passengers and 15 crew on board.

The Boeing 777-200 aircraft is believed to have been shot down over the troubled country.