Prosecution halted in Jehovah's Witnesses abuse case due to confidentiality breach

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) can no longer prosecute a man suspected of abuse of a minor within the Jehovah's Witness community. The OM improperly used confidential information in the criminal investigation, the court in Zwolle ruled on Tuesday in an interim judgment.

The 48-year-old man from Assen is accused of having committed indecent acts on an 8-year-old victim in 2016. In the context of the investigation into the alleged sexual abuse, investigators raided the headquarters of the church organization in Emmen, several homes of religious elders, and the religion's Kingdom Halls in Assen and Dordrecht in 2018. The OM searched for documents from judicial committees organized by Jehovah's Witnesses when a member of the religious community is accused of child sexual abuse.

These documents are confidential and are protected by the privilege of non-disclosure, similar to the privilege that applies to doctors. The Jehovah's Witnesses filed a lawsuit accusing the government of ignoring the legal privilege of religious servants.

An investigative judge previously ruled that these documents should be removed from the case files. While some documents were removed, the Overijssel court determined that the file still contained confidential information. It included transcriptions of wiretapped conversations with the elders, letters from the accused to the elders, and their responses.

According to the court in Zwolle, not only were the rights of the accused violated, but this also undermined "trust in the entire judicial system." The court observed "serious, large-scale, and persistent breaches of regulations" by the OM. The court ruled that citizens must trust that their discussions with confidential informants remain secret. Declaring the OM inadmissible in the criminal prosecution of the accused is the only appropriate conclusion, the court ruled on Tuesday.

Attorney Maurits Jansma described the verdict as clear-cut, noting, "This has effectively become the final judgment." He believes there was a deliberate search for information from so-called confidants, the church community's trusted representatives. "I've never encountered this before. This shouldn't have been allowed." His client, who once worked at the OM, is still processing the ruling, the attorney said.

As of Tuesday, the Public Prosecution Service had not yet commented on the ruling.