Will former alderman Peter Tielemans of the municipality of Helmond go free or will he receive community service? The former city manager is suspected of embezzlement, gag and two cases of corruption. The court in Den Bosch will deliver the verdict this Friday.
Tielemans was arrested in 2015 after his political party reported a secret bank account. Justice accuses him of pocketing a lot of money from that bank account and demands 120 hours of community service.
The alderman had to wait seven years for a trial. The public prosecutor has taken this long waiting time and the great media attention into account by lowering the sentence. “But a six-month prison sentence would not have been out of place,” he said at the hearing on November 2.
“The rules don’t apply to him.”
According to the public prosecutor, former alderman Tielemans still has no insight into how wrong his actions were. “The rules don’t apply to him. It is wheel and deal with public money. He has caused considerable damage to the municipality of Helmond and the people he worked with.”
The officer accuses the former alderman of embezzling more than 140,000 euros from a campaign bank account of his political party SDOH. He filed a report after the bank account was discovered. Money had been withdrawn from Brazil, Spain and Paris. Tielemans was arrested in 2015.
“How is it possible that such an important document suddenly turns up after your house has already been searched?”
Tielemans claims that nothing has been embezzled at all. He points to a ‘contract’ between himself and the now deceased treasurer of the SDOH. This would show that Tielemans has lent about 57,000 euros to his party. Money that Tielemans was allowed to withdraw from the bank account to ‘settle’ the debt.
Tielemans came up with that contract three years after his arrest. “Completely unbelievable,” said the officer. “How can such an important document, about 60,000 euros pre-financing, turn up when the house has already been searched?”
“Lady Justice has left me standing in the chill and cold of the night.”
Tielemans is also accused of gag. According to the officer, he did not return subsidy money for a project to highlight a sculpture route in Helmond to the municipality, but had it transferred to another party. He is also accused of corruption with two donations. One of them concerns an amount of 10,000 euros from two brothers who wanted to start a coffee shop.
Tielemans’ lawyer wants acquittal due to lack of evidence. Tielemans says he is ‘broken’ after waiting seven years for his trial. “Lady Justice has left me standing in the chill and cold of the night.”