Lawyer Jan-Hein Kuijpers says that “a lot of guys” have called him. “But not one of them seriously asked if I wanted to make a request for a clemency on his behalf. They see the banality in it. Most think that Masmeijer talked about information he received from other detainees.”
Criminal lawyer Ruud van Boom was approached by two detainees, “but I was not able to record all the phone calls. Indeed, I was also asked whether I also had access to a judge, or to Huis ten Bosch. I was not immediately able to make them happy with the announcement that I had the key.”
Lawyer Mark-Jan Bouwman received five calls from clients in prison. “And they were dead serious. And indignant. Why I never told them that was possible?” And now he’s filling out the forms? Bouwman: “Certainly not. I explained to them that they have no foreign criminal sentence and that you have to be seriously ill or near death here to stand a chance of being pardoned. They can give me a try, the form is online, but I’m not doing it.”