Two found guilty, four acquitted in assisted suicide case; Provided drug doses to 1,000

The court in Arnhem acquitted four people accused of supplying the suicide drug X. It convicted two others and gave them suspended prison sentences, which they’ll only have to serve if they commit another criminal offense. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) had demanded prison sentences against six of the seven suspects, accusing them of forming a criminal organization and providing the suicide drug to over 1,000 people.

The court considered it proven that Tineke B. (74) and Jos van Wijk (76), the former director of Coöperatie Laatste Wil (CLW), an organization that fights for more self-determination at the deathbed, collaborated with Alex S., who was convicted last year of supplying drug X. The Arnhem court convicted B. and Van Wijk of participating in a criminal organization with the aim of assisting suicide.

B. got a suspended prison sentence of 1 year with a probation period of four years. According to the court, she was involved in the assisted suicide of at least one woman and thereby caused a lot of suffering to the woman’s loved ones. “As a result of their mediation, this lady was given Drug X and an antiemetic with which she ultimately ended her life,” the court said. The woman’s daughter said in her victim statement that a distance occurred between her and her mother since her mother made contact with B. “As a result of which, she was unable to assist her mother in the final phase of her life in the way that she wanted,” the court said. That weighed heavily in B.’s sentence, the court said.

Van Wijk got a suspended prison sentence of 4 months and a probation period of 1 year. According to the court, as the director of CLW at the time, Van Wijk should have taken faster, clearer, and stricter action against the informal trade of the suicide drug. “He allowed a culture to continue in which drug X could be provided by the group. His intention to participate in the criminal organization can be deduced from the conscious development and continuation of a certain culture in which rules are broken and in which the man was even actively involved at times.”

According to the court, there was not enough evidence to prove that Erik van V. (75), Jos S. (75), and Marja K. (76) participated in that criminal organization. The court acquitted them. The OM asked the court to acquit another former director, Petra de Jong (71), and the court agreed with that request.

The case against the seventh suspect, Loek de L. (80), was dropped after his recent death. The judge said that the court was not unmoved by the man’s death. “The court thinks back, in particular, to his words in his last statement. He stood in the interest of self-determination but also saw that reconsideration was necessary.”

This is the first time that the OM has prosecuted a group of people for assisting suicide in an organized context. According to a recent study by 113 Suicide Prevention Foundation and GGD Amsterdam, at least 172 people in the Netherlands have died from taking drug X.