Tapped conversations end up with No Surrender founder in police blunder

No Surrender founder Klaas Otto, currently in custody in the Middelburg prison, was able to listen to the tapped conversations of other inmates due to a police blunder, NOS reports. Otto is in custody because he is suspected of extortion, assault and arson, amongst other things. In preparation for his trial, he requested the tapped recordings of phone calls he made from prison. He also got the tapped conversations of other prisoners.

According to the police, something went wrong in the "filtering" of the tapped conversations. The police regret the mistake, as it violates the privacy of other detainees. It also gives Otto ammunition against them. How many conversations by other prisoners Otto has in his possession, is unclear.

Otto's lawyer, Louis de Leon, is surprised by this mistake, he said to NOS. According to him, the police gave Otto a hard disk full of conversations he could listen to in his cell. These include phone calls Otto made on the prison telephone, which is used by all detainnees. But cellphones that circulated among other prisoners were also tapped, because the police believed that Otto may use these.

De Leon thinks that those cellphones may have been intentionally let in by the prison staff to trap Otto. "My client absolutely did not use them. He behaves like a model prisoner", he said to the broadcaster.

Otto's trial will start in mid-September.