Too much time between the time fines are issued and the actual adjudication. Incomplete or linguistically incomprehensible official reports. Earlier this week, the subdistrict court judge in Den Bosch was not happy with the handling of a number of corona cases. With apparently fresh reluctance, she did not impose sentences on most of the defendants. “It was like a puppet show.”
More than thirteen hundred people who received a fine during the corona period in Brabant are still waiting for a hearing before the subdistrict court judge. Hurry is required, because this kind of thing expires after three years. The COVID-19 virus held our country in its grip from the beginning of 2020 until May 2022.
“Nothing to worry about, we thought, and then we got a ticket.”
This period also had a legal tail for three men from Bladel (24), Den Bosch (23) and Vught (25). They reported to the Palace of Justice in Den Bosch earlier this week. Why had they received a subpoena? Noury Yahouni from Bladel, one of them: “On December 6, 2020, the four of us were in two cars, neatly divided and in the cars some distance apart. After all, at that time you had to keep your distance.”
“We had opened the windows so that we could talk to each other, but from our seats. Nothing was wrong, we thought. Then the police came and asked us to get out. We immediately received a ticket for gathering. We immediately We announced that we would not accept this.”
In September this year (almost three years later) they were summoned to report to the subdistrict court. The public prosecutor maintained her position during the hearing. The three men were punishable because they stood together with more than two people. That was not in the interest of public health at the time, she argued. The Public Prosecution Service wanted to halve the fine because the trial took so long. The subdistrict court judge thought differently: the official report was rattling on all sides. She decided to acquit the trio.
“She gave us a discount, I thought it was a strange meeting.”
Yahouni couldn’t stop having fun afterwards. “I thought it was a strange hearing. You could just tell from everything that the officer absolutely wanted to tackle us. In the end she changed her mind a bit and gave us a discount on those fines. Discount!? Then stick to your demand. I have it All in all it felt like a puppet show, especially because we had to wait three years.”
A 30-year-old man from Heesch was also able to leave the courtroom without any damage. He was fined 95 euros for walking on the street at eleven o’clock in April 2021. That was a violation of the curfew. However, nothing would happen to him if he took the shortest route home. He did that, and yet he still received a fine. According to the subdistrict court judge, the curfew had been ignored, but because the official report was inaccurate, the man from Heesch was not punished.
At the end of the afternoon, a 31-year-old man from Oss had some bad luck. He was caught not wearing a face mask on December 23, 2020. He did have to pay a fine, although it was reduced to 50 euros.
Still more than thirteen hundred corona cases to go.
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There are still many cases of corona offenders pending, the Public Prosecution Service must hurry to get the offenders to court on time