Prosecutors divided over murder plot inquiry

8 January 2004

AMSTERDAM — A heated conflict has erupted within the Public Prosecution Office (OM) over inquiries into a plot to kill top Amsterdam prosecutor Koos Plooy and a decision against making a deal with a criminal.

Police and OM sources claim the nation’s prosecution department believes it knows who the culprit is, but in order to prosecute the suspect a deal must be made with another criminal to get that person to testify, an NOS news report said on Thursday.

But the College van Procureurs-generaal (the Attorneys-General Council — which decides OM policy) has refused permission to use the special investigative means. Prosecutors have reacted with astonishment to the decision.

Several OM officials believe that every method available must be used in tracking down someone who is threatening a prosecutor and they have demanded that alternatives be examined.

The suspect is mafia boss Sreten “Jotcha” J. — who is also accused of being behind the murders of criminals Sam Klepper and Jan Femer. J. is presently serving a jail term in the Vught extra security prison for shooting a police officer.

The OM revealed last September that criminals were planning to murder prosecutor Plooy, who is closely involved in the fight against organised crime. He was also in charge of the case against Volkert van der Graaf, the killer of maverick politician Pim Fortuyn.

Plooy — who has been placed under constant security since the murder plans were discovered — had Bulgarian mafia boss J. extradited to the Netherlands two years ago.

But police have insufficient evidence to start criminal proceedings and therefore to make a breakthrough in the case, they want to agree to a deal with a known criminal.

The criminal is willing to give a statement over the role J. is alleged to have played in the assassination plan. He is also believed to have more information over the circumstances of the murders of both Klepper and Femer.

But if the prosecution fails to officially charge J. before the middle of March, the Netherlands will be forced to extradite him to Germany, where he faces trial for a relatively small cocaine case.

Meanwhile, it was reported last year that convicted robber Richard Z. was interrogated over threatening language he made against Plooy while in jail. He has not been officially charged with planning the prosecutor’s murder.

Subject: Dutch news