Lawyers go to court to get psychiatric treatment for man who held Ede café hostage

The lawyers representing Corné H., the man who held four people in a café in Ede hostage for several hours in 2024, have filed a lawsuit to get the man admitted to a forensic psychiatric clinic immediately. He was sentenced to institutionalized treatment for the hostage taking, but has been waiting in regular prison for almost two years for a spot in a clinic to open up. The man is a danger to himself and others and is being held in “inhumane” circumstances, lawyers Jan-Jesse Lieftink and Petra Breukink told AD.
The court will hear their case on Friday in The Hague. “We see no other option,” the lawyers said to the newspaper. They hope to convince the judge to give H. priority. “This can’t go on like this. Corné is very unpredictable and dangerous to himself and others. Also to the prison staff. I had already warned about this,” Breukink said.
Since his incarceration, H. has been hearing voices that give him bizarre orders to hurt others, the lawyers said. The 29-year-old man has been involved in several incidents in prison, first in Zwolle and later in Vucht, mostly harming himself. But he also attacked a guard. And in December, H. took his guards hostage with a knife in the prison in Vught. He eventually surrendered.
After that incident, H. was transferred to another prison. According to his lawyers, he is locked up in his cell for 22.5 hours a day. “That’s inhumane.”
In August and October, Breuking warned the Ministry that H. is a ticking time bomb who urgently needs help and treatment. But the forensic psychiatric clinics have no space. Some 270 convicts are currently waiting in regular prisons for a place in a clinic.