The lawyers of crown witness Nabil B. say that the top man of the Public Prosecution Service should resign. Peter Schouten and Onno de Jong state that Attorney General Gerrit van der Burg does not take the conclusions and findings of the report of the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) seriously. Van der Burg responded to the report in Nieuwsuur on Wednesday (see video below).
stage
The lawyers say in a statement: ‘The attitude that the Public Prosecution Service is demonstrating boils down to the fact that the Public Prosecution Service has done nothing wrong, but it is said in front of the stage that they want to learn lessons. (…) The Public Prosecution Service does not even hesitate to blame the victims, saying “that it was difficult to protect them due to insufficient cooperation from De Vries and the family of the key witness”.’
Criticisms
The OVV established, among other things, that no security measures were deliberately, but wrongly, taken for the benefit of the family of the key witness during negotiations, and that there was no optimal exchange of information between the various services. Moreover, the security of Peter R. de Vries was not increased, while there was reason to do so.
The lawyers believe that Van der Burg does not endorse this and the other points of criticism of the OVV.
Step back
That is why they ask for the resignation of the people they outline as responsible: Gerrit van der Burg, the chief public prosecutor of the national public prosecutor’s office, the chief public prosecutor of the Central Netherlands district, and the advisers who were responsible for the family of the key witness and Peter R. de Vries.
The OM is investigating the attack on Peter R. de Vries: “It is likely that it has more to do with the fact that he was subservient to those involved in a criminal trial than with his work as a journalist,” says OM CEO Gerrit van der Burg . #News hour pic.twitter.com/A73D4QTaac
— Nieuwsuur (@Nieuwsuur) July 16, 2021
