Policeman faces sack over Juliana bomb joke

8 April 2004

AMSTERDAM — A police officer who thought it would be funny to claim there was a bomb at Noordeinde Palace faces the sack. At the time, members of the public were queuing to pay their last respects to the late Queen Juliana.

A spokeswoman for the military police service confirmed to news agency ANP on Thursday that dismissal procedures had begun against the officer.

He was on duty at Noordeinde in The Hague on 28 March as people gathered to pay their respects to Queen Juliana before her funeral two days later.

Using an internal telephone, he told a colleague there was a bomb in the palace garden. “It became clear very quickly that it was a joke,” the police spokeswoman said.

“But because it was not an appropriate joke, we investigated who was behind it and the officer was identified within 24 hours. He turned himself in.”

Subject: Dutch news + bomb scares