Justice Minister Foort van Oosten has ‘once again clearly conveyed’ the Dutch request to extradite Jos Leijdekkers to the Sierra Leonean Minister of the Interior, Morie Lengor. The outgoing VVD minister did this at a summit meeting on drug crime in Ghana, he told ANP in a telephone conversation. “The Netherlands will not let go of this subject.”
“There are more criminal situations abroad,” says Van Oosten. “If the Netherlands makes an extradition request for this, then it should simply be followed.” The minister cannot do much more than continue to emphasize the extradition request. “I am not about Sierra Leonean authorities.” He thinks the conversation with the minister is valuable.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Dick Schoof also asked President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone for the extradition of the fugitive drug criminal, better known as Bolle Jos. Schoof briefly spoke to the president about this during a summit meeting in Angola. It is unclear how Bio responded to the request.
Leijdekkers, who has already been convicted several times in the Netherlands and Belgium, will still have to serve 24 years in prison in the Netherlands. According to reports from Sierra Leone and the Netherlands, he also has a child with President Bio’s daughter. In September, opposition leader Mohammed Mansaray reported that the child was born in New York.