Man suspected of being hired to attack prosecutor released from custody

A man the authorities believed was hired to attack prosecutor Greetje Bos, was released from custody, the Public Prosecutor announced. The investigation did not confirm the suspicions against him, NU.nl reports.

The Sliedrecht man was arrested on Monday. The authorities believed that No Surrender founder Klaas Otto hired him from prison to attack Bos - the prosecutor working on his case. According to the Prosecutor, information about a possible attack on Bos was received by the Team Criminal Intelligence in July of this year. The Public Prosecutor called it "very serious information".

According to Otto's lawyer, Louis de Leon, the Public Prosecutor's national office called him on Thursday to say that they "actually have nothing", the lawyer said to NU.nl. "They wanted to get the suspicion off the air as quickly as possible, but the genie is already out of the bottle", De Leon said. 

This suspicion against Otto was fabricated in order to throw oil on the fire in the run-up to his trial in September, De Leon said. According to the lawyer, the main objective of this charge was to get him transferred to the high security prison in Vught. "That goal has been achieved", De Leon said to the newspaper. "It is a shame." He filed an objection against the transfer.

Otto is currently in custody awaiting his trial. He is a suspect in various criminal cases and the Public Prosecutor is charging him with extortion, threats, money laundering, influencing witnesses, assault and arson.