Many suspects, victims often not informed that their cases have been dismissed

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) did not send a dismissal letter to either the suspect or the victim in a “significant number” of dismissed cases, Edwin Bleichrodt, the Procurator General (PG) at the Supreme Court, stated in a new report. A case is dismissed when a decision has been made not to continue with the prosecution. The OM dismissed a total of 39.7 percent of cases in 2024.

For the report, 204 files of cases that were dismissed in 2022 were studied. In 40 percent of infraction cases, no dismissal letter was sent to the suspect, or it could not be verified. In 30 percent of the investigated criminal cases, this was also the case. The Procurator General further concluded that not all victims who indicated they wanted to be kept informed received a dismissal letter.

In some cases, suspects who cannot speak Dutch did not receive a dismissal letter in the right language. And in cases involving a minor, the letter was not always sent to the rightful legal guardian(s).

The Public Prosecution Service uses standard wording in its dismissal letters, and according to the Procurator General, the content “leaves much to be desired.” For example, the reasoning behind the dismissal is a standard phrase and therefore “very limited.” The description of the criminal offense also falls short, according to the Procurator General.

Furthermore, the dismissal letter to the suspect reportedly does not mention that a complaint can be filed, nor that most dismissal decisions are recorded on the suspect’s criminal record. The PG recommends that the Public Prosecution Service improve both the delivery and the content of dismissal letters.

The report states that it is also not always clear why a case has been dismissed. The PG is pleading for internal oversight to “ensure the quality of dismissal decisions.”

The OM has responded by saying that they will take the conclusions and recommendations to heart. “They offer concrete starting points for improvements, and we will move forward with them promptly,” said senior OM official Rinus Otte.

According to him, the Procurator General of the Supreme Court is holding the OM to account in a good way. “The legal terms that we use are second nature to us. But that is not the case for the suspect and the victim, and it can have a profound effect on someone’s life. The decisions we make, and the way they are communicated in the letters we send, must therefore be clear and easy to understand. That’s something we will be strongly focusing on.”