public prosecutor

Charles van der Voort, the Chief Public Prosecutor in Zeeland-West-Brabant, is resigning as of November 15th. At the Public Prosecutor's office there has long been complaints about a poor working atmosphere and a lack of transparency, NOS reports.

The national management of the Public Prosecution Service launched an investigation into the Zeeland-West-Brabant office last year. That investigation was recently completed and the results were discussed with the management at the regional office, but will not be made public for the time being. 

A police officer was sentenced to 120 hours of community service, conditionally suspended, for firing four gunshots at a scooter rider in Groningen in April last year. The court in Groningen found her guilty of attempted aggravated assault and not acting according to the instructions of the police, NU.nl reports.

The 41-year-old officer was convinced that the scooter driver posed an acute danger. He met the description of a man who had threatened his parents with firearms, she said. The suspect was described as riding around on a red scooter, and maybe in possession of firearms.

The Public Prosecutor is increasingly convinced that Malek F. had a terrorist motive when he stabbed three people in The Hague in May. A report from Islam experts and bugged conversations F.

A youth leader from scouting club Frans Naerebout in Goes was acquitted of intentionally inflicting injury on three children by branding them during a summer camp in Belgium. Mark B. burned the abbreviation of the scouting club, F. R., onto the kids' backs with a branding iron, NOS reports.

The trial against 34 people suspected of blocking the A7 highway to prevent anti-Zwarte Peit protesters from reaching the national Sinterklaas arrival celebrations in Dokkum last year, started on Monday. The case was suspended shortly after it started because one of the judges, Willem Sikkema, lost consciousness, AD reports.

Seven men suspected of preparing for a large terrorist attack in the Netherlands, will stay in custody for at least another 14 days, the court in Rotterdam decided. According ot the judge, there is sufficient evidence to extend their remand, NOS reports.

Dino S. was arrested in his cell on Monday morning for involvement in the assassinations of Willem Endstra in May 2004 and John Mierement in November 2005, the police said on Monday. S. is already serving a life sentence for ordering the assassinations of Kees Houtman and Thomas van der Bijl, Nu.nl reports.

A 24-year-old man from Goes is suspected of burning three children with a branding iron during a summer camp at a campsite in Belgium last year. Youth leader Mark B. appeared in court on Thursday. He is charged with causing the children serious bodily harm with premeditation, RTL Nieuws reports.

Judge Jan Wolter Wabeke officially withdrew from a lawsuit filed by a group of anti-smokers against the tobacco industry. On Monday the lawyer representing this group, Benedicte Ficq, accused the judge of being biased. Later in the day the court in The Hague granted Wabeke's request to withdraw, NOS reports.

Ficq told the media that he learned through an acquaintance that Wabeke had been "condescending" about this case while speaking in private, saying that smoking is the smoker's own responsibility. Ficq asked him to withdraw.

The bodies of two children, a man and a woman were found after a fire in a home in Papendrecht on Saturday morning. Traces of violence were found on the bodies. "They may not have died in the fire", the Public Prosecutor said in a press conference in Papendrecht on Saturday afternoon, NU.nl reports.

The house fire was reported to emergency services at around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. Firefighters found the bodies after breaking down the door. Attempts to resuscitate them were to no avail.

The Public Prosecutor added a charge of possession of child pornography against Jos B., the man already suspected of sexually abusing and killing 11-year-old Nicky Verstappen in Brunssummerheide in 1998. The 55-year-old man was reprimanded into another 90 days of custody by the court on Thursday, NU.nl reports.