The Public Prosecutor’s Office (OM) has asked a court to jail schoolboy Murat D., 17, for five years followed by compulsory TSB hospitalisation for shooting and killing deputy headmaster Hans van Wieren in Terra College in The Hague on 13 Janaury this year. The court was also asked to impose a three-year sentence on Huseyin S, the man accused of providing Murat will the gun used in the killing. The court is to deliver its judgement later this month.

Divorcing judges from divorce

The parliamentary party of the Liberal VVD has introduced a bill to abolish the requirement for a judge to sanction a divorce agreement. Particularly when a couple do not have any children, there should be no need for a judge’s input, VVD parliamentarian Ruud Luchtenveld said. In cases when there are children, the MP wants both parents to be treated equally in relation to their upbringing.

Bulgarian woman sold for EUR 50,000

A 36-year-old Bulgarian woman living illegally in the Netherlands sold another woman from her country to a Dutchman for EUR 50,000, the police in Eindhoven revealed on Friday. The victim had been forced to work as a prostitute, but the man fell in love with her and paid the large sum to free her. She is living with him and has applied for a residence permit to stay in the Netherlands.

Sex club owners detained for human smuggling

Two operators of sex clubs in Drenthe Province and one in Groningen have been arrested on suspicion of human smuggling, news site nu.nl reported on Friday. One of the detainees was partially identified as Carlos D., 60, the founder of the first sex club in Drenthe. The authorities have refused to reveal the background to the case, but recently two Romanian men were jailed for four years for recruiting and forcing Romanian women to work in the sex industry in Drenthe.

Children frightened by TV news

One in six Dutch children is frequently frightened by television news, a new study by the University of Amsterdam has revealed. Communications researcher Walma van der Molen found that 65 percent of Dutch children, aged between seven and 12, look at the news almost daily. From about the age of seven, she said, children can distinguish between fiction and reality. They are less frightened by violent movies than the real violence reported in the news, she said.

Police continue Vinkenslag vigil

Fifteen minibus loads of riot police kept guard at the Vinkenslag trailer park in Maastricht on Friday to prevent the residents mounting any protest actions in response to a massive police raid on Thursday. Feelings were running high in the largest trailer park community in the Netherlands after 400 police officers conducted a dawn raid and arrested 13 people. Five lorry loads of cannabis plants were also removed from Vinkenslag on Thursday. The previous day, 80-100 people from the trailer park blocked the A2 motorway to protest at previous police operations.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news