At least 90 Dutch public prosecutors have received court reprimands for mistakes over the past ten years. Many of the errors were made deliberately in order to secure convictions. Evidence in the defendant’s favour was withheld, and sometimes evidence was falsified.
The claims come in Sunday’s edition of the public service current affairs programme Zembla, which examined hundreds of verdicts. The programme asserts that 150 suspects in murder, manslaughter, child pornography and human trafficking cases were acquitted because of errors by the public prosecutor’s office. Innocent people were also convicted, such as in the case of the Schiedammer park murder, in which a man was convicted on the strength of a false confession, and the public prosecutor’s office made a succession of blunders.
In four cases the judges ruled that public prosecutors had broken the law, and in eight that they had deliberately withheld information. According to Zembla the prosecutors involved faced no penalties, but public prosecutor’s office chief Harm Brouwer says appropriate measures are taken to deal with erring prosecutors.
(c) Radio Netherlands Worldwide
ANP
Email this Article
Printer-friendly version
The justice system isn´t perfect in this country or any other Western country. USA has many people sitting on Death row who are innocent. For the most part, the Dutch legal system is doing it´s best to correct their past mistakes. I see other Western countries very slow at correcting their own mistakes.
Post new comment
Please be reminded all comments must be in English, short and to the point - guideline 250 words. Abusive and inappropriate comments will be removed.