Fmr. Justice Sec.: Conspiracy forced my resignation

Former Security and Justice State Secretary Fred Teeven believes that there was a conspiracy behind his resignation. According to him, the news about his deal with drug criminal Cees H. was deliberately brought out just before the elections. "The people who did it, organized it well", Teeven said in an interview with the Leiden student magazine Debat, according to the AD. Both Teeven and former Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten resigned because of the deal Teeven made with Cees H. during his time as prosecutor. Opstelten misinformed the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, about the amount involved in the deal. According to Teeven, it was not happenstance that the news about the deal surfaced just before the elections. "This was not by accident." If you see something happening for the second time, you automatically think of course: where is this coming from?" He also said that the 15 year old deal was "a ridiculous reason" to resign". The former State Secretary, now a VVD parliamentarian, did not want to give any further comment to the AD on Friday. "This interview was long ago, I have nothing to add", he said. An independent commission is currently investigating the so-called Teeven deal. The report on their findings are expected by the end of this year. VVD Minister Edith Schippers of Public Health previously also called conspiracy after the string of VVD scandals were released just before the elections.