Enschede cop prosecuted for colleague's arrest at own request

Police inspector Herbert Hoekerswever from Enschede must be prosecuted for unjustly arresting a fellow officer in 2016, the Arnhem-Leeuwarden court of appeal ruled. Hoekerswever himself asked to be prosecuted, Tubantia reports.

In May 2016 Hoekerswever arrested a man in the police station in Enschede. It quickly turned out that the man was a fellow police officer from Amsterdam. The detained officer told NRC that he was arrested because of his Dutch-Moroccan origin, calling it ethnic profiling.

The Amsterdam cop pressed charges against his Enschede colleagues, and the Public Prosecutor established that there was punishable behavior, but declared that the case will be dismissed if the police took internal measures. Hoekerswever was reprimanded by his employer. But two months ago police chief Erik Akerboom reversed the reprimand, finding that there was no dereliction of duty.

Hoekerswever himself filed a so-called Article 12 procedure, to force the Public Prosecutor to prosecute him, according to the newspaper. The court ruled in his favor in this procedure. A spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor told Tubantia that after the summer it will be decided which office will handle the prosecution, and then for which offenses the Enschede cop will be prosecuted.