Rough arrest leads to sentence reduction in Anne Faber killing

Michael P.'s 28-year long prison sentence for raping and killing Anne Faber will be reduced by four months, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. P.'s sentence is being lowered because his rights were violated during his hard-handed arrest, the Supreme Court ruled, NU.nl reports. 

P. sustained injuries to his shoulder when he was violently arrested by a tactical team team in 2017. At the time of his arrest, there was hope that Faber was still alive and the team aimed at getting information about her whereabouts as quickly as possible. 

When P. was tried, the court already established that P.'s rights had been violated, but did not translate that into a reduced sentence. The Supreme Court found this decision insufficiently motivated. The fact that the man's rights were violated must reflect in his sentence, the court ruled. The Supreme Court therefore decided to reduce his sentence from 28 years in prison plus institutionalized psychiatric treatment, to 27 years and 8 months in prison, plus institutionalized psychiatric treatment.

In some cassation cases, the Supreme Court refers the case back to another court of justice to retry or adjust sentencing. But in this case, the Supreme Court decided to reduce the sentence immediately for the sake of Anne Faber's family - to prevent the case from being dragged out any longer. 

The Public Prosecution Service is currently also investigating P.'s arrest, but the results of that investigation will have no bearing on the man's sentence.