CROOKED DUTCH LEGAL SYSTEM SURVIVES CENSURE

How lucky do you have to be in the Netherlands? An innocent man got out of jail only because the guilty man came forward

Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner retained the support of a majority in Parliament after being severely criticised in a debate on Thursday. MPs expressed doubts about whether Donner was the right person to deal with the aftermath of the Nienke Kleiss case in which an innocent man went to jail for the 10-year-old girl's murder. Donner took responsibility for the litany of mistakes made by the police and prosecutors in the case.

The opposition Social Party and the Green-Left Groenlinks were not satisfied by Donner's account and filed a motion of no confidence. But the motion drew the support only of independent MPs Geert Wilders and Hilbrand Nawijn. The three coalition government parties backed Donner, allowing him to keep his job. The minister did not have an easy time during the debate as many parliamentarians questioned whether he was up to the job of reforming the prosecution service.

A review of how the wrong man was convicted of killing Nienke concluded that justice officials made a series of fundamental blunders in the case. One of the main problems was that the court was not told about DNA evidence found on the girl's body which did not match Cees B.

B. served four years of an 18-year sentence for killing Nienke. He was released in January when another man admitted murdering Nienke in Beatrix Park in Schiedam in June 2000. A special commission is being set up to examine other criminal cases for potential miscarriages of justice.


Report here



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