Opstelten does not know Cees H. amount

Minister Ivo Opstelten claims not to know the exact amount that was transfered to drug baron Cees H. in a deal with the Public Prosecution Authority (OM). Opstelten wrote a letter to Parliament on Tuesday in which he tells that he has asked the OM for the bank transcripts, but that these are difficult to attain. During a Parliamentary debate in March, Opstelten stated two million guilders. Of that amount, 750,000 guilders went to the state and the remaining money went to H.'s Luxembourg bank account.

In Tuesday's letter, the minister writes: "What was actually transferred, I did not speak to your Parliament about." In the meantime, the minister has done an inquiry at the General Prosecutors Council, and says he will inform Parliament about the results. Earlier information about the deal, in the programme Nieuwsuur, spoke about five to six million guilders. Piet Doedens, H.'s former lawyer, repeated that amount in an interview with the Volkskrant on Friday, and said that Opstelten did not correctly inform the House of Parliament. In Opstelten's letter to Parliament, he says that he cannot understand Doedens' accusations. According to his information, the worth of the amount transferred at the time has depreciated to around two million guilders. Magda Berndsen, MP for D66, says that the minister's letter raises more questions than it answers, and encourages a debate. She received too little support for this, however, and various MPs say they need more time to read the letter properly.