The residents of one of the two endangered homes on the Roef in Huizen are allowed to return home. The emergency order with which the house has been closed is cancelled. That has been determined by the trial judge. The two homes have been closed since July due to threats and an explosion that took place at one of the homes.
The emergency order, with which the mayor has closed the house, will be suspended from November 3 at 12:00. According to the preliminary judge, it was ‘imaginable’ that the mayor used an emergency order to close homes for several weeks. “But now it is no longer a period of a few weeks, but a period of almost three months,” the statement reads. The other house will remain closed for the time being.
Mayor Meijer previously indicated that there was ‘tension on the emergency order’, meaning that, according to the judge, he could not keep the homes closed forever. Despite that, he is not at all satisfied with the verdict. “The judge ignores the real reality.”
Explosion
The residents had to leave their homes in haste on Sunday 3 July when the mayor decided to close the two homes on the Roef. Meijer did this on the basis of signals from the police and the Public Prosecution Service. There was a serious threat on both houses. The two families were housed in a safe location. The same week, the residents tried to return home through the courts, but that fell through.
A week after the closure, it became clear how serious that threat was. In the night of Saturday 9 to Sunday 10 July, an explosive device went off in front of one of the closed houses. After a long silence, it turned out that the threat is related to a conflict in the Dutch drug circuit. This quarrel has led to a bomb going off in Huizen, but also in Tienhoven and Hoef en Haag, for example.
Return
Since then, the closure of the homes has been extended no less than six times, but the mayor tried to prepare the minds for the eventual return of the two families. “The intention is to give them a soft landing,” says Meijer.
Earlier Saturday afternoon, local residents discussed the judge’s decision. According to the mayor, the neighborhood finds the return ‘exciting’, there are ‘concerns about the risks, but local residents are also realistic about the return.’
It is not yet clear when the residents will return to De Roef. The mayor does indicate that when the time comes, it will also be examined which safety measures are best applicable.