The House of Representatives wanted suspects to be obliged to be present at their criminal cases and the verdict, but a plan for this has been postponed: it appears to be too expensive, among other things.
Minister Franc Weerwind (Legal Protection) writes this in a letter to the House of Representatives. The new doctrine was supposed to apply this year, but that has been postponed to July 1, 2024.
At present, suspects are still free to choose whether they come, unless the court obliges them, for example to accommodate victims and surviving relatives who appreciate this. Because of their interests, VVD, CDA, PVV and JA21 wanted such an appearance obligation. Then, for example, suspects are present when victims and surviving relatives use their right to speak.
But Weerwind has more bad news for the proponents in addition to the postponement: the obligation to come will not apply before the day of the verdict in a criminal case anyway.
According to Weerwind, the plan unexpectedly has greater ‘personnel and financial consequences’ than expected. There is already a shortage of 170 FTEs in the police and prisons to implement it. And 5 million euros had been set aside for the entire operation, but it now appears to cost 23.4 million euros. The longer sessions, the transport, the extra security: the costs add up. To reduce this somewhat, the mandatory presence at the judgments has already been scrapped, which reduces the costs to 9.3 million euros per year. But that money will only be there from next year, not this year.
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2023-05-16 14:57:42
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