Good intentions of the (criminal) legislator for 2026
The legislator also has good intentions for the new year in the form of new laws. I will mention three of these below that relate to criminal law. Namely, the ban on cash payments of €3,000 or more, the criminalisation of having or installing hidden compartments in means of transport, and the expansion of the possibilities to […]
Court of Justice: investigation into phones should be subject to stricter scrutiny
In many criminal cases, an examination of the phone can be decisive for a finding of evidence. It is therefore not surprising that police officers are eager to poke around in the data carriers and regularly fish for the access codes as early as during the "social" interrogation. Sometimes this is even given, because the person does not want to give the impression [....]
Suspension lifted despite possibility of appeal, correct?
It depends on the nature of the case and personal interests, but with some regularity, courts release suspects under suspensive conditions. This is as it should be, since a suspect can be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Nevertheless, the curious circumstance regularly arises that courts, in sentencing [...]
Rabobank to appear in court for possible breach of anti-money laundering law (Wwft)
On 9 April, the Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) announced via a press release that it has decided to summon Rabobank for violating the Money Laundering, Financing and Terrorism (Prevention) Act. The bank allegedly failed to conduct customer due diligence and report unusual transactions. To the same [...]
From now on, more community service sentences instead of prison sentences, prosecutor says
For this purpose, the instrument of the punishment order will be used more often. It is now common knowledge that prisons are overcrowded while there is a severe shortage of staff. Prisons are mainly filled with people serving sentences of less than six months. In October 2021, the Criminal Justice Council reported [...]
Free, unless...
Both within penitentiary institutions (PIs) and outside, it is noticeable that the Dutch criminal justice system is bogged down. Due to understaffing in the police, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) and the judiciary, it takes a long time to get to the substantive hearing. Not to mention the duration of the appeal process. But besides understaffing, there are [...]
On witness testimony and the workings of memory
In many criminal cases, the prosecution uses witness statements that incriminate a defendant. For a lawyer, this is often a reason to question the witness in question. If the lying witness can be unmasked or if the statement proves to be unreliable, sometimes the supporting evidence can be under [...].