The House of Representatives backs the Cabinet’s plans to improve security and surveillance of threatened people. Justice Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz wants to carry out a thorough review of the system, because it doesn’t work properly and serious and fatal mistakes are made by the police and the judiciary. The crown witness scheme is also under review, because the deployment of crown witnesses is not going well and poses many dangers and risks for crown witnesses, their loved ones or officials.
Last night, the House spoke for at least eight hours about the harsh conclusions of the Dutch Safety Board (OVV), which investigated the rush to murders of crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, lawyer Derk Wiersum and Reduan, the brother of crown witness Nabil B. The trio were connected to the large Marengo criminal trial involving prime suspect Ridouan Taghi.
The OVV found that both the police and the prosecutor were wrong, mainly because they did not share crucial information with each other, so that adequate security measures were not taken. To prevent information fragmentation from now on, the National Security and Counter-Terrorism Coordinator (NCTV) will be the core of the “information puzzle”. “It will be legally ensured that NCTV receives the information necessary for its role of authority,” the minister said. The Chamber is particularly concerned about the prosecutor, who shows little self-reflection about his role.
Apologies
Yeşilgöz earlier apologized to relatives for the mistakes made by government services; but on Thursday he did not want to say whether there will be compensation. She is and will continue to speak to families, it was all he wanted to say. Most MPs also expressed their condolences to the surviving relatives, for whom the report and debate about it must be “hard as a trail” in their eyes.
Although the minister is adopting all the recommendations of the OVV to improve the system, there have been doubts about the implementation of the plans. There was harsh criticism of Yesilgöz’s lukewarm and belated response when the OVV report was published, but the minister has not had any problems politically. Only DENK leader Farid Azarkan presented a motion of no confidence, also on behalf of the Van Haga group. He will be largely rejected when the motions are voted on after the break.
Source: BNR
Fernando Dowling is an author and political journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He has a deep understanding of the political landscape and a passion for analyzing the latest political trends and news.
