Parents of soldiers killed in Mali sue Defense

The parents of two Dutch soldiers killed in a mortar grenade accident in Mali in 2016, are pressing charges of death through negligence against the Defense organization and an unknown number of Defense employees. The parents want those responsible for the deaths of their sons - 29-year-old Henry Hoving and 24-year-old Kevin Roggeveld - to be found and tried, the Volkskrant reports.

For over a year the parents thought their sons were killed by a manufacturing error in a grenade. "That was what the Marechaussee told us", Hoving's mother said to the Volkskrant. But a report by the Dutch Safety Board last year revealed that the grenades were never inspected after being used in a previous mission and were improperly stored, and that the soldiers in Mali did not have access to quality medical care.

The lawyer representing the killed soldiers' parents now wants the Public Prosecutor to investigate who "acted contrary to the Defense Regulations which put human lives in jeopardy".

According to the Volkskrant, Defense does not want to mention the names of employees who "played a crucial role in the run-up to the accident".

The Dutch Safety Board's report on this incident resulted in the resignation of Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert as Minister of Defense in Octber last year. "I am politically responsible and I fully take this responsibility", she said at the time.