Netherlands: Suspected “terrorists” acquitted
01 November 2002
Four "terrorist" suspects charged with preparing an attack on the American embassy in Paris last year have been acquitted after a Rotterdam court found that evidence against them had been obtained unlawfully. Prison sentences varying from one to six years had been demanded by the prosecution, but defence lawyers called for the charges to be dismissed arguing that the prosecution had failed to act in accordance with the law. The Court felt that there was not such a serious infringement of the principle of due process that it should bar the prosecution. The immediate release has been ordered of three of the suspects who were being held in detention.
The Court considered that evidence against all four suspects had been unlawfully obtained by the Public Prosecution Service (OM). The evidence against them was based on information that had been gathered and handed over to the OM by the - then - National Security Service (BVD). The competence of the BVD is limited to the gathering of information for national security purposes and it has no competence in investigating criminal offences. In addition, the information handed to the prosecution by the BVD was insufficient to establish that the accused were "suspects" in the sense of Article 27, paragraph 1 of the Dutch Criminal Code.
Even before an investigation could establish reasonable suspicion of guilt, the Prosecution Service had designated the men as "suspects". The ensuing searches and arrests were therefore authorised on insufficient grounds and must be considered unlawful. Material obtained from the searches could not serve as evidence in relation to any of the charges. In the absence of other evidence this resulted in the acquittal of all four men.
The Court stated in its judgment that, even if it had decided otherwise about the start of the criminal investigation, it would not have found proven the charge of involvement in the preparation of an attack on the American embassy in Paris or on an American Army unit in Belgium. The criminal file provides insufficient information to conclude that the charge has been proven. Neither can the charge of participation in a criminal organisation be proven.