Criminal defense lawyers are receiving a remarkable number of calls from prison these days. Ask their convicted clients to file a pardon on their behalf. If the former quizmaster and convicted cocaine smuggler Frank Masmeijer succeeds, why not them?
This week Masmeijer announced himself in an interview of The Telegraph that he has been pardoned by Minister Franc Weerwind (Legal Protection, D66). Masmeijer was arrested in 2014 and sentenced to nine years in Belgium in 2017 for cocaine smuggling, which was confirmed on appeal. The reason for pardon is allowed by the court of Arnhem-Leeuwarden private to make.
A remarkable pardon, according to criminal lawyer Maarten Pijnenburg. He emphasizes that “in this hardened time of drug trafficking” [is] to welcome the application of the human measure”. Yet this decision came to him “like a brick from heaven.” Even in very dire cases, requests for clemency are “rarely successful,” he says. He has been considering making a new petition since Wednesday for a client of his, a terminally ill woman over 80 years old whose pardon request was rejected in March. “The lady herself has never benefited from the actions that are being blamed on her,” stresses Pijnenburg. The fact that she is of old age and suffers from colon cancer did not help with the request for a clemency. “That affected my sense of justice,” he says.
More and more summary proceedings
Masmeijer may have been handed over to the Netherlands by the Belgian authorities at the end of last year. This was done on the basis of the Mutual Recognition and Enforcement of Detention and Conditional Sanctions Act. This law allows EU citizens to serve the last part of their sentence in their home country. An important condition is that the transfer to the home country may never lead to a heavier sentence, says Tilburg criminal lawyer Geoffrey Woodrow. Like Pijnenburg, he emphasizes that he does not know the specific circumstances of this case. But he would not be surprised if Masmeijer has successfully argued that convicts in Belgium can be eligible for early release after serving one third of their prison sentences. They then come before a special committee of judges that decides on this. “It is not standard that you are released early, but it is realistic,” said Woodrow. The problem, he says, is that at the time the detainee is transferred to the Netherlands, it is not yet clear whether the sentence would be shortened in Belgium. “Then we start from the principle that a prisoner in the Netherlands will serve at least two thirds of the sentence.” It is not a judge who decides here, but the Public Prosecution Service about early conditional release, which can only be for a maximum of 2 years. The obvious fact that you will be released on parole after two thirds of your sentence has been abolished here since last year.
An appeal to the Belgian procedure can be a reason for a pardon, a spokesman for Minister Weerwind agrees, provided that “combined with personal circumstances”. He says that Masmeijer has also shown good behavior, including during his probation leave in Belgium.
Woodrow sees more and more often that once convicted Dutch people in Belgium initiate summary proceedings here in order to be eligible for early release, which is customary in Belgium. “If Masmeijer had asked for it through summary proceedings, he might also have been eligible,” he thinks, “but in this case he may have supplemented this argument with personal reasons in the request for a clemency.”
Woodrow can’t count on one hand how many of his clients have called from prison since Wednesday saying they also want a pardon. He tells them that it is “very difficult” to qualify. He has been a lawyer since 1996, since then only one client has been pardoned.
There was a lot of criticism of the clemency decision, among others the police believe that the fight against drug crime is undermined. Weerwind’s spokesperson understands the criticism, but objects that Masmeijer “had a year and a half to go”. He also mentions that he learned through the media that there was “a lot of discussion about the watertightness of” [diens] condemnation”. Masmeijer may have also argued this in his request for a clemency. Criminal lawyer Pijnenburg rejects this argument. “He was convicted by a European judge and the Netherlands has taken over the sentence. His guilt is firmly established.”
Belgium soon ‘more restrained’
Apart from the many phone calls to lawyers from the jail, Woodrow expects another consequence of Masmeijer’s pardon. “I think that from now on Belgium could be more cautious about transferring sentences, if they get the impression that pardons would often be granted. They can invoke the principle of confidentiality and say that they must be able to rely on their sentences being carried out.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of July 23, 2022