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25 May 2004
AMSTERDAM — Amid revelations that the kidnapper of Dutch teenager Wei Wei Hu had gone missing from a psychiatric detention clinic, a majority of Dutch MPs spoke out on Tuesday against allowing criminals convicted of sexual offences to be released on provisional leave.
The Christian Democrat CDA, Labour PvdA and populist LPF said sex offence criminals should remain detained in TBS detention clinics, while the Liberal VVD said they should be subjected to electronic supervision while on provisional leave.
The Lower House of Parliament, the Tweede Kamer, will debate the TBS detention system on Wednesday with Justice Minister Piet-Hein Donner, news agency ANP reported.
The debate had been planned before the 13-year-old Wei Wei, of Eibergen, was kidnapped on Sunday. The girl was released by her kidnapper at about 5.30am on Tuesday in the German town of Munster. She had been sexually abused.
It has since been revealed that the culprit — who is being detained in Germany and has confessed — failed to return on 11 May to a Utrecht TBS psychiatric detention clinic after he was released on provisional leave. It is believed he was previously convicted on kidnapping charges.
The man will appear in court on Wednesday, but it is not yet known whether he will be tried in Germany or the Netherlands.
About 90 convicted criminals detained in a TBS clinic fail to return each year after being released on provisional leave.
The Justice Ministry said most incidents involve “short absences” during which the criminals do not commit repeat crimes.
The number of TBS detainees has almost doubled from 855 in 1995 to 1,623 in January 2004. In total, they avail of the provisional leave system 50,000 times each year, 20,000 of which are conducted in the supervision of TBS officers and 30,000 are unsupervised leave.
The Dutch TBS system allows for the life imprisonment of criminals convicted of severe offences such as murder or sex crimes. Psychiatrists can continually advise against a detainee’s release
[Copyright Expatica News 2004]
Subject: Dutch news