Parliament employee to be prosecuted for leaking information to the press

An employee of the administrative committee of the lower house of Dutch Parliament, the Tweede Kamer, is being prosecuted for leaking sensitive information to the press. The woman has violated her duty of confidentiality by doing this, and is punishable by law, according to the Public Prosecution Service (OM). This concerns information about an investigation that the administrative committee wanted to conduct into the former chair of the Tweede Kamer Khadija Arib.

The administrative committee is called the Presidium in Dutch, and it is comprised of the Tweede Kamer chair and a collection of deputy chairs who are responsible for the daily operations of the organization and procedural matters.

A leak was reported by the daily management of the Tweede Kamer on 3 October 2022. An investigation by the National Criminal Investigation Department shows that journalists obtained information on 28 September when it had not been made official yet. The investigation showed no clues to indicate that members of the Tweede Kamer were involved, according to the OM.

The investigation into Arib was initiated by her replacement, Vera Bergkamp, after anonymous complaints were made about transgressive behavior by Arib during her time as Parliament chair. She quit her position as an MP for the PvdA shortly after this.

Arib took the matter to court, claiming that neither the Tweede Kamer administrative council, nor the civil servant leadership had the authority to order an independent investigation into the conduct of a Member of Parliament. Although there was evidence to back up anonymous claims of a “socially unsafe working environment,” Arib also said she was not given an opportunity to defend herself during the investigation.

Testimony in her lawsuit was heard in October, and a verdict is expected early next year. She and her attorney have asked the court to declare the investigation unlawful.

The attorneys representing the Tweede Kamer argued in the case that Arib was given four different opportunities to respond to the allegations, and said she created barriers that made it exceedingly difficult to hand her information about the allegations against her. They also argued that it was not a political witch-hunt, as the Tweede Kamer Presidium is made up of eight Members of Parliament from various party factions.