Man released over dead coach photos

10 December 2004

BRUSSELS – A man who tried to sell pictures of the dead body of Belgian football coach Raymond Goethals will not stand trial, said a court office on Friday.

The man, who worked at an undertaker’s, asked for EUR 2,500 for pictures of the Goethals, who died of cancer on Monday.

On Thursday evening, the man called the Flemish daily Het Laatste Nieuws with the offer of the photos, but the editors immediately called the police.

That evening, he was arrested in a café in Laeken.

The police interviewed him until late in the evening before deciding to release him without charges.

Court spokeswoman Estelle Arpigny said the authorities could have prosecuted the man with the mutilation of a corpse.

“That’s a law which we don’t use very much,” she said.

“The man could have faced a month’s prison sentence and a fine of between EUR 125 and EUR1000.

Subject: Belgian news