Dutch crime boss Willem Holleeder transferred to less secure prison
Heineken kidnapper and criminal kingpin Willem Holleeder has been transferred from the high-security prison in Vught to a less secure penitentiary. He is now serving the rest of his life sentence in the Intensive Supervision Division in Krimpen aan den IJssel, his lawyer, Chaimae Ihataren, told RTL Boulevard.
Holleeder is serving life in prison for a series of assassinations. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) would have preferred to keep him in the high-security prison in Vucht for the entirety of his sentence. But Holleeder appealed, and the Court of Criminal Justice and Youth Protection (RSJ) recently ruled in his favor, RTL reported.
The RSJ ruled that the longer Holleeder spent in the Netherlands’ highest security prison, the stricter the requirements must be for keeping him there. The OM therefore had to provide new information about what danger Holleeder would pose if he was transferred to a less strict regime.
The RSJ did not find the OM’s updated threat assessment convincing and ruled that the “risks can be sufficiently mitigated by placement in an Intensive Supervision Division.”
“This ruling confirms that Mr. Holleeder is also entitled to a fair and thorough assessment. Different rules do not apply to him,” lawyer Ihataren told RTL. “After more than 11 years, his stay in the high-security prison is finally coming to an end, and he will be transferred to a more humane regime.”
