appeal

As the appeal in the hate speech case against PVV leader Geert Wilders continued in the high security court at Schiphol on Tuesday, his lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops demanded that the case be declared inadmissible due to political interference in the decision to prosecute, NOS reports. The prosecutor denied that any interference occurred, and pressed for the case to move forward as scheduled.

One of two police officers involved in the fatal arrest of Mitch Henriquez was sentenced on appeal to a six-month long suspended prison sentence. The other police officer was acquitted by the court of The Hague on Wednesday, AD reports.

A ruling by the court in The Hague that held the Dutch State partly accountable for the death of around 300 Muslim men after the fall of Bosnian Muslim enclave Srebrenica in 1995, is unjust, the Advocate General said in advice to the Supreme Court. According to the advocate General, Dutch UN battalion Dutchbat can not be held liable for the death of the Muslim men, NU.nl reports.

On Monday the court of appeal sentenced Mario H. to four years and six months in prison for attempted manslaughter. In January last year H. assaulted a 46-year-old former psychiatric prisoner with a snow shovel because the man had tried to lure his then 14-year-old daughter into a sexual relationship. According to the court, H. beat his victim hard enough with the snow shovel that he "knowingly accepted the chance that he would die as a result", NOS reports. 

Jos de G. was sentenced on appeal to 12 years in prison for raping and killing 15-year-old Nicole van den Hurk in 1995. The court in Den Bosch convicted him of rape and manslaughter on Tuesday. When this case was first tried two years ago, De G. was convicted of only rape and sentenced to 5 years in prison, NU.nl reports.

The Dutch authorities managed to hack into the phones of two men suspected of assassinating Samir Erraghib in IJsselstein in 2016. The Public Prosecutor believes that data from these phones will reveal which of the two suspects was the gunman, was revealed during the appeal in this case, ANP reports.

The Public Prosecutor did not reveal what data was retrieved from the phones, in order not to jeopardize another investigation. The case was therefore postponed for three months.

Insiya Hemani, the now 4-year-old girl who was allegedly taken from her Amsterdam home by people hired by her father, will stay in India with her father, his legal team said. The team made the statement based on their interpretation of an Indian court’s ruling on appeal, though that ruling was not yet published by the court. Insiya's mother contested the claim saying no such ruling was made, calling the statement from the father's side "fake news."

Former PVV politician Daniel van der Stoep, 37, was convicted on appeal of grooming and possession of cocaine. He was sentenced to 240 hours of community service and 3 months in prison, conditionally suspended, NU.nl reports. 

Monster truck driver Mario D. was given an unconditional prison sentence of 15 months on appeal on Wednesday for causing an accident with his monster truck in which three people were killed and 23 were injured. D. is also banned from practicing his profession - a professional stuntman - for five years, NU.nl reports.

The court in The Hague will start the hate speech appeal against PVV leader Geert Wilders next week Thursday. Eleven days were set aside for the trial, which will be held in the high security court at Schiphol, RTL Nieuws reports. 

The Public Prosecutor posted a video on YouTube in which it explains its position in the appeal trial on a fatal monster truck accident in Haaksbergen in 2014. The Council for the Judiciary is surprised that this video was made public even before the appeal happened, NOS reports.