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Tuesday, 11 February 2014 - 08:31
Resolution in case against ex-neurologist Jansen
Today, the case of ex-neurologist Ernst Jansen will be addressed after months of handling, and a course of more than ten years.
Jansen has previously been ordered to complete a 6-year jail sentence. The question is in how far Jansen deliberately gave wrong and heavy diagnoses to his patients, with far-reaching consequences. It is a unique and exceptional case. Never before could a doctor be imprisoned for possible intentionally administering false diagnoses.
The courthouse in Almelo has had more than ten meeting days in the last few months over this case, which is being called the biggest medical criminal hearing in Dutch history.
Jansen told his patients that they suffer from extreme diseases, like Alzheimer's among others, when this wasn't the case at all. In the mean-time, these patients were taking heavy medication for years because he told them to. Jansen did this several times, until his dismissal from the Medisch Spectrum Twente in 2003.
On Tuesday it will become clear if this 10-year long drawn out case will finally come to a resolution. The Public Prosecution Service has ordered a 6-year prison sentence against the ex-neurologist. Jansen's lawyer thinks he should be acquitted. There's a good chance that one of both parties will lodge an appeal. In the disciplinary hearing, which was in effect at the same time as the criminal hearing, the lawyer has already appealed.