Dutch man may get chance of release after 34 years in U.S. prison

It is expected that later this year a decision will be made about the early release of Dutch-Surinamese man Jaitsen Singh, who has been in prison in the United States for 34 years. There is a chance that he was unjustly convicted of the murders of his wife and daughter, ANP reports.

Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs said that the Netherlands expressed its support for an early release on humanitarian grounds. Singh is getting consular assistance from the Netherlands.

In 2015 the Volkskrant reported that the Dutch government dropped the ball when it came to assisting Singh. He did not receive a single visit from a Dutch diplomat for 12 years, and civil servants refused to help him be relocated to the Netherlands on humanitarian grounds. The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, was seriously concerned by this revelation and called on the government to assist Singh.

Singh was sentenced to 56 years in prison in 1986 for the murders of his wife and daughter. It later turned out that the key witness in the case was bribed by the prosecutor.