One or more relatives of deceased Corona patients in the Wilhelmina Hospital Assen (WZA) still want the Public Prosecution Service to continue a former nurse. For this they started a so-called Article 12 procedure. The Court of Leeuwarden confirms this after questions from RTV Drenthe.
After extensive investigation, the former nurse did not have to appear in court. But not everyone agrees.
Lack of evidence forced the case to drop the case in April 2024. So no lawsuit. But surviving relatives can still try to get the case to court through an article 12 procedure. It is, as it were, a complaint that a surviving relative submits to the Court of Appeal.
A surviving relative says with that complaint: I disagree with the decision of the public prosecutor not to bring the case in the first instance.
What follows is a procedure in which the court looks at whether there is sufficient evidence. The person who submits the complaint must also explain why the nurse still has to be prosecuted.
If after the entire procedure – which is behind closed doors – the Court stipulates that the case must still be discussed in court, the public prosecutor must conduct further investigation and ultimately bring something to court.
The ex-nurse’s lawyers do not respond in terms of content to the started procedure. In general, lawyers are not informed when an Article 12 procedure is initiated. Only when the Court decides that the case should go to the court, will they receive a report.
If the Court decides that the case does not take place, the WZA book closes definitively. Survivors can then no longer be appealed. The Court of Appeal stated that Article 12 procedures take place behind closed doors to protect the complainant and/or the defendant.
In terms of content, no statements are made about it, not even whether it is one or more complainants who started the procedure.
In the search for the rehabilitation of their client, the lawyers of the former WZA employee started a disciplinary case last year against the GGZ Drenthe employees who violated their professional secrecy and reported the conversations with the nurse.
The lawyers say they have acted wrongly. “The announcements he made there have translated those employees of GGZ and told to the hospital in Assen. Those confidential announcements have ended up with the police and the judiciary. We think that is not possible,” said Tjalling van der Goot against the NOS last year.
The disciplinary case against GGZ Drenthe is still running, it is not yet known when it will appear before the disciplinary committee.
The case came rolling in April 2023 after an investigation by the Public Prosecution Service. During conversations with Psychologists from GGZ Drenthe, the former nurse said he had killed several people in the Wilhelmina Hospital Assen.
He worked as a nurse in the Coronape period in the lung department. There he would have given patients extra morphine without instructions from a doctor, he would also have done something with the oxygen. In the end, no evidence was found that this actually happened.
After considerable consideration, GGZ Drenthe decided to violate professional secrecy. The care institution sent an extensive letter to the WZA and eventually the hospital went to the police with that information.
What followed was an extensive investigation in which the former nurse was also arrested. He denied having killed people from the start and stated that he was misunderstood by care providers. In his own words, he always worked according to the protocols. In the end it decided after intensive research that there was too little evidence to prosecute him.
So now there is still a possibility that the former nurse must appear in court. The Ressortparket (the Public Prosecution Service on appeal) says that the case is being processed. It is not known when a ruling will follow.