Freedom and justice, compassion for a burns victim and debate following a pier fire, political protection and a sex scandal, it’s all in the papers today.

Gaddafi burns victim may be treated at Dutch burns centre
Images of the terrible burns sustained by Hannibal Gaddafi’s au pair have circulated around the world. Ethiopian Shweyga Mullah was badly burned when Aline Skaf, the wife of Gaddafi’s fourth son, poured boiling water over her twice for refusing to hit the children. Now a burns unit in the Dutch town of Beverwijk has been asked by CNN if it can help.

In AD, burns expert Jos Vloemans says the injuries can be treated. The woman is lucky to have survived the attack and probably only did because she is young. Mr Vloemans expresses how shocked he was by the images. Not because of the third degree burns, “as he has seen much worse, but because the injuries had been deliberate”.

It’s not certain whether Ms Mullah will be brought to the Netherlands, burns centres elsewhere in the world have also said they are willing to help. There are three things standing in the way of a ticket to Beverwijk, money to pay for the treatment, a passport and the possibility that the patient has multi-resistant bacteria. Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal has said he will do what he can to help the Ethiopian au pair, who has become a symbol of the barbarism of the Gaddafi regime.

What to make of a simmering sex scandal?
There is one story which has been simmering in the press recently. It’s potentially a political sex scandal – the only problem being: is it true? Top civil servant Joris Demmink has been accused of sex with under-age boys. Trouw writes that for the first time in his 40-year career he was referred to in the papers as Joris D. (as surnames of suspects are generally not reported by the Dutch media) and his photo printed with a black bar over his eyes.

The accusations have been made by two Turkish men - currently serving sentences in a Dutch prison - who say as teenagers they were raped by the civil servant when he was on a business trip to Turkey in the 1990s. They say they are the victims of an unfair trial, held to shut them up. It is not the first time the leading justice ministry employee has been accused of sexual impropriety. In 2003, two magazines wrote that he had sex with male prostitutes in the shrubbery of a public garden. A boy in the Czech Republic also filed a complaint against him, but was later found to be lying.

However, none of the accusations appear to have damaged his career so far. Successive ministers have always protected him. One colleague told Trouw in 2003, “The more that comes out about Demmink, the stronger his position is in the department.”

As long as nothing is proved, Mr Demmink still has the support of the current Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten, which is just as well - the paper writes - as he is due to give evidence in a completely unrelated case at the end of the month.

Should life mean life?
Should a life sentence mean remaining in prison for the rest of your natural life. Trouw reports on how a committee for recommendations on life sentences set itself up three years ago as a reaction to the harsh penal climate in the Netherlands. Even populist daily De Telegraaf concedes that Dutch sentences have become harsher than elsewhere in Europe as the result of the pressure of public opinion. The committee wants to see ‘lifers’ given more humane treatment. It has put together a bill for parliament which it hopes MPs will back.

Only political parties can put bills through parliament, so political support is essential. The bill would make it possible to consider a lifer for conditional release after 20 years. This would take place at the request of the prisoner in question. A convict would only be considered for release after being examined by two behavioural experts from different disciplines.

Championing the cause is Hank Heijn, the widow of Ahold boss Gerrit Jan Heijn, who was murdered in 1987. She forgave the murderer of her husband. She says, “A ten or twenty-year sentence has an effect on people. That change should be given a chance.”

Meanwhile a man who threw a candle holder at the queen’s Golden Coach on Budget Day last year is still being held on remand according to Trouw. At his trial on Tuesday experts said he is mentally disturbed, but no-one can say whether there is a danger he will menace the royal family again. The man fears detention in a mental institution – which could well result in a different kind of ‘life sentence’ here in the Netherlands.

Burkas and books on the issue of freedom
Freedom is an issue in the papers today. De Volkskrant prints pictures of Afghan women in burkas by a Dutch photographer, while in nrc.next a Chinese author comments on restrictions to freedom during the Beijing book fair.

Photographer Ton Koene catches images of Afghan women as they struggle to live life covered from head to toe by a blue burka. One women is shown selling magazines on the street. She holds up two glossies featuring blue-eyed cover girls with long hair. Children clutch their mothers’ robes because it is difficult to recognise mum in the bazaar crowd.

Afghan women would welcome a ban, as is being proposed in many European countries. Although - as one woman puts it - she “would rather burn it today”, many would not dare take off their burkas unless everyone else did so at the same time.

Nrc.next writes that the freedom of Chinese dissidents is being curtailed because of a Dutch delegation of writers visiting the Beijing Book Fair. Dr Jiao Guobiao was invited to the fair by the Dutch Foundation for Literature. But he was visited by the Chinese police, who warned him not to attend. His movements have been restricted for seven days out of the last 27. At least four other writers have also been put under house arrest during the book fair.

The author of the piece, Yu Zhang – coordinator of Writers in Prison, a group affiliated to the human rights organisation for authors PEN - writes that dissidents used to have more freedom when there was more international pressure than contact and the Chinese government feared international isolation. Now it makes sure its dissidents are isolated.

Will Scheveningen pier rise from the ashes?
A fire on the pier in the seaside town of Scheveningen (near The Hague) has given rise to the question: what to do with the colossal white elephant. According to Trouw, the local council had thought it had got rid of the problem when it sold the pier in 1991 to the Van der Valk concern for the symbolic price of one guilder. However, the same council has drawn up a master plan for a ‘facelift’ of the resort’s sea front and the pier owners think the promenade jetty should be part of that plan.

Demolishing it would be a sensitive matter, I can see the protest groups demonstrating already, because the Germans destroyed the first pier during the occupation of the Netherlands in World War II after it was struck by fire in 1943. Gone was the grand wooden pier with a majestic pavilion at its end. It wasn’t replaced until the 1960s and to some it’s been an eyesore of metal and concrete ever since.

But the pier has its fans, in AD Dutch columnist Bart Chabot calls for renovation of the pier. He says, “The pier belongs in Scheveningen, like the Brighton Pier.” I wonder which one he is referring to, as there are two piers in Brighton. One is home to a fun fair and the remains of the other are rusting away in the waves after being left in ruins following storms and fires.