There will be no new judges in the case surrounding the robbery of Dusan Tadic. Niek Hendriksen, the lawyer of the suspect in that case, had submitted a challenge request at the beginning of this month, but that was rejected by the challenge chamber.
Tadic, who now plays for the Turkish Fenerbahçe, was attacked in July 2022 near his home by two men who probably wanted to rob him. Two suspects were arrested in October last year. One of them was acquitted of robbery in February this year because there was not enough evidence against him. He was sentenced to six months in prison – two of which were suspended – for assault.
Camera images
A case is still pending against the other suspect, a now 20-year-old man, in which his lawyer submitted a challenge request at the beginning of this month. The lawyer accuses the judge and the Public Prosecution Service of having communicated with each other without informing him of this.
Hendriksen is referring to camera images that the public prosecutor had sent to the judge, in addition, the public prosecutor also told the judge which parts of the camera images were relevant to the case. The lawyer was only sent this information after he had requested it.
“The judge has constantly kept the defense counsel out of communication with the public prosecutor,” said the lawyer. “He only received it after he explicitly asked for it. (…) As a result, the judge misled the defense and favored the Public Prosecution Service on several occasions.”
Turned down
It is not enough for the challenge chamber to suspect the judge of partiality. “The counsel makes various assumptions and assumes things that, in his opinion, would affect the partiality of the judge. However, these assumptions do not find any support in the e-mail conversations.”
According to the challenge chamber, the fact that the judge was sent information when preparing the case is not an indication to suspect him of favoritism. “Counsel would of course have been given the opportunity at the hearing, if desired, to comment on the images or to point out certain other fragments or times.”