Cop and fmr. MP arrested for leaking confidential information

Police officer and former parliamentarian Hero Brinkman was arrested on Monday morning on suspicion of breaching professional secrecy, his lawyer Richerd van der Weide confirmed, according to Het Parool and AD. Van der Weide only had brief contact with his client, so does not yet know exactly what is going on. Brinkman's home was also searched.

Brinkman works as an inspector in the Amsterdam police. Last summer he was demoted and put on probation for dereliction of duty.This involved a case in which one woman hit another woman in the face with a glass in a bar fight. Brinkman was accused of forcing a woman to confess to the beating while she was not responsible. Since his demotion, Brinkman has been put on the "sidelines" in the police, according to his lawyer.

Until 2012 Brinkman was a parliamentarian for the PVV. He then stepped out of the party and continued independently as parliamentarian. His Ondermenerspartij got no seats in parliament in the parliamentary election on March 15th.

In February PVV leader Geert Wilders canceled all his public appearances after a member of the police's Safety and Security team was arrested also for breach of professional secrecy. The Safety and Security team has been guarding Wilders for years.