Two Dutch journalists, Jelle Visser and Jan Ponsen, were found not guilty on Thursday of breaches of German privacy law. They were on trial for secretly recording an interview with Dutch war criminal Heinrich Boere.

They were facing prison terms earlier in the day, when they entered the small courtroom in Eschweiler in western Germany, where Boere is registered as a resident. Jan Ponsen admits to having “not slept well” the night before. Normally, they report on court cases, but they found themselves defendants in front of a foreign judge. They were represented by one Dutch lawyer and two German ones.

Boere, now 88, was not in the courtroom. His lawyer said he had wanted to be present but that he couldn’t manage it because of his physical condition. Boere was admitted to prison hospital a number of weeks ago. The Dutchman was sentenced to life in 2010 for the murder of three members of the resistance in the Netherlands in 1944.

Hidden camera
In 2009, the two journalists were desperate to interview Boere about his impending trial, but all their requests were turned down. The staff at his old people’s home refused to put through calls. It was then they decided to risk using a hidden camera. They weren’t aware that German privacy laws are tougher than those in the Netherlands. During their trial, the judge observed: “You should have looked into this, but you didn’t. You committed an error that could have been avoided.”

In the end, the judge gave more weight to the importance of their work as reporters than to Boere’s privacy rights. Visser and Ponsen explained that their aim was to show a different side to Boere through recording a personal interview. Boere’s trial had been due to start just a few weeks later, but remorse and regret would play only a very small part in the proceedings. For his victims’ families though these aspects were really important.

Nazi killings
Dinja Bicknese and Annie Schröder-Schilte followed the journalists’ trial closely from the back of the courtroom. Boere, a member of a hit-squad of Nazi collaborators, killed pharmacist Fritz, Ms Bicknese’s grandfather, in 1944 – he was a suspected member of the resistance. Ms Schröder-Schilte’s father, a hotel owner, was arrested thanks to Boere’s infiltration of a resistance network in Helden-Panningen in the south of the Netherlands.

“It’s put to rights now,” she said after the not-guilty verdict. “The Germans at least see what’s what.” Ms Bicknese: “It’s emotional for me to see how the reconstruction of my grandfather’s death is dealt with by a German court before a German judge as part of this case.”

Unusual
The lawyer for Boere argued that a not-guilty verdict for the journalists could result in everyone going around with hidden cameras in the future. The judge, however, disagreed: “This is a very unusual trial. A singular case.”

General relief greeted the verdict. Thomas Bruning, chairperson of the Dutch NVJ journalists’ union, called it “a victory for journalism”. Visser and Ponsen’s editor made similar noises: “We’d do exactly the same the next time”.

The two journalists and their supporters celebrated afterwards with German sparkling wine. Boere’s lawyer appeared to be the only person who was disappointed. Even the public prosecutor was on the defence’s side. He set the tone early on in the proceedings by calling for a not-guilty verdict.

Just before the doors closed on the court, Visser said, “I hope this story is taken seriously in the Netherlands. Boere is one of the most infamous Dutch war criminals still alive.” This trial in a small court in Eschweiler was a major case.

(mw)