The Public Prosecution Service is prosecuting a justice of the Court of Appeal in The Hague for committing forgery. The judge is suspected of falsifying judgments and reports. The Public Prosecution Service Limburg said this on Wednesday announced.
At the end of 2023, the Court of Appeal in The Hague discovered that a justice, a team leader in the criminal section, deliberately signed incorrect verdicts in 43 minor criminal cases. The justice made it appear as if the judgments had been delivered by a multiple criminal chamber of three justices. In reality, they were single statements by the councilor himself, it was reported NRC last year.
After the discovery, the court reported an official misconduct. The councilor left the court. The report was referred to the Limburg Public Prosecution Service to prevent him from being tried in The Hague by his former direct colleagues.
After a criminal investigation by the National Criminal Investigation Department, the Public Prosecution Service decided to prosecute. In the press release, the Limburg Public Prosecution Service speaks of a serious criminal offense that affects the integrity of the judiciary. “Litigants must be able to assume that documents drawn up by judges correspond to the truth.”
According to the Public Prosecution Service, the investigation by the National Criminal Investigation Department shows that the councilor drew up documents contrary to the truth. During so-called docket hearings – which are intended for procedural decisions prior to the substantive hearing of a criminal case – he pretended that the decisions were made by three judges.
Nothing is known about the motive of the councilor – whose identity the Court of Appeal in The Hague and the Public Prosecution Service do not want to share. In return for NRC the court stated last year that it had not received an “intelligible explanation” from the lawyer in question.
Rulings by three judges yield a higher financial compensation for the court than ‘unus’ cases by one judge. As a result, the Court of Appeal in The Hague wrongly declared approximately 110,000 euros too much to the Council for the Judiciary over a two-year period. There was no question of personal gain before the judge.
Criminal prosecution of judges in the Netherlands is highly exceptional. The most famous recent example is the Chipshol case – a conflict over land around Schiphol – in which two judges were prosecuted for perjury. However, they were acquitted in 2013.
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Judge suspected of deliberately incorrectly signing judgments – external investigation announced
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