public prosecutor

The police raided three buildings belonging to the Jehovah's Witnesses last month in an investigation into sexual abuse within the religious community. Four homes were also searched, with the goal of finding documents on internal investigations, NU.nl reports.

The Rijksrecherche launched an investigation into the flow of information around the investigation into the murder of four men in Enschede last month. Over the past days many details about the murders were leaked and the Public Prosecutor is "very concerned", De Gelderlander reports.

Business man Bill Browder pressed money laundering charges against a number of banks and businesses in the Netherlands. The Pubic Prosecutor is currently investigating the charges to see if criminal prosecution is justified, RTL Nieuws reports.

Thousands of people were unjustly punished in settlements made with the Public Prosecutor over the past years, NRC reports based on information the newspaper requested from the Public Prosecution Service. The Public Prosecutor disputes this conclusion.

The data shows that guilt was not correctly determined in 6 percent of settlements with punishment last year, according to the newspaper. With more than 30 thousand such settlements each year, that comes down to 2 thousand cases in which guilt was not properly proven.

The political viewpoints of Geert Wilders and his party PVV played no role in the decision to prosecute Wilders for statements he made about Moroccans, the Public Prosecutor again stressed on Friday at the start of the appeal in the hate-speech case against the PVV leader. This is only about what he said, the Prosecutor said, NU.nl reports.

A 50-year-old piano tuner from Tricht was sentenced to one year in prison and institutionalized psychiatric treatment for assaulting a pastor in her church in the Gelderland village of Rhenoy last year. The Public Prosecutor demanded eight years in prison against the man, NOS reports.

Animal party PvdD will press charges against VVD party leader Klaas Dijkhoff on Tuesday for environmental pollution. Dijkhoff released 500 balloons at a VVD congress in Den Bosch on Saturday, AD reports.

With the release of the balloons, Dijkhoff responded to accusations that he released too many "test balloons" in his political work. He asked the the attendees of the congress to write down political ideas, which were attached to the balloons and released into the air. 

The Dutch authorities will be holding large anti-terrorism exercises in various locations in the Netherlands on Thursday. This "realistic exercise" will be based on a terrorist attack and the consequences thereof, and will involve a large number of participants, the police said.

Customs divers found 239 kilograms of marijuana hidden under a sea going vessel docked at a terminal on Maasvlakte in Rotterdam on Sunday, the Public Prosecutor said.

The customs officer decided to dive underneath the ship after the seaport police received a report that something suspicious was detected during the maintenance of the ship. The diving team removed several large sports bags from under the ship. "The state of the bags showed that they have been in the water for a long time", the Persecutor said.

The Attorney General of the Supreme Council wants to change the way DNA samples are taken from convicts. Currently the judiciary takes a DNA sample from everyone sentenced to four years or more in prison. According to the Attorney General, this puts privacy at stake. He suggests only taking DNA material from people convicted of serious violent or sexual offenses, NOS 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.