Former parliamentary speaker Khadija Arib has taken extra legal action against the House of Representatives to end the integrity investigation into her behavior during her presidency. Arib and her lawyers want the investigation to be qualified as unlawful and thus ‘prevent the investigation from being completed and the results thereof being made public’.
This is apparent from a letter from Chamber President Vera Bergkamp on Monday on behalf of the Presidium (the board). to the House of Representatives. According to the letter, Arib claims ‘all data processed about her for the purpose of the fact-finding investigation will be erased and destroyed and that the House of Representatives will compensate all damage suffered by it.’ Bergkamp responds with the letter to questions in a letter from several MPs who inquire about the state of affairs regarding the integrity investigation into Arib’s behavior during her presidency.
Although the investigation, according to Bergkamp, is at an advanced stage and “could be moving towards completion”, Arib’s new legal action against the Chamber and the presidium (the presidents and vice-presidents) of the Chamber is likely to delay it. According to the President of the House, the Presidium regrets ‘that the former President, however much she is free to do so, has chosen this path instead of cooperating with the investigation’.
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Leave room
Last October, Arib left the House of Representatives after 24 years, after it became known that the House is having an investigation into alleged transgressive behavior. Vera Bergkamp succeeded Arib as chairman of the House of Representatives after the previous parliamentary elections.
The reason for the investigation is an anonymous letter from July last year to the presidium, the executive board of the House of Representatives, in which reference was made to ‘a very unsafe working environment’. According to Chamber President Bergkamp, top officials then said that they recognized the signals. Exactly what it is about has not been disclosed. But officials are said to have complained that Arib treated them rudely during the time she was president of the House.
Summer guests
In September 2022, the presidium decided to launch an investigation into possible transgressive behavior by Arib. She was taken by surprise by that decision. Arib said this month on the television program Zomergasten that she still does not know exactly what she is being accused of. For example, she stated that she was ‘thrown in front of a train’. ,,When I look at it, I find the way in which Bergkamp has dealt with it unacceptable. Bergkamp had no authority to start this investigation like this.”
At the insistence of the House, it has been decided to leave the supervision of the research to so-called delegated principals, in order to avoid influencing the research. The investigation itself is being carried out by the Hoffmann detective agency.
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