Bakker Schut Foundation's Adele van der Plas Urges Council of Europe Committee of Ministers to Answer Questions Regarding the Serious Violation of the Lanzarote Convention by the Netherlands Completely and Swiftly

AMSTERDAM, April 25, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following the submission of "disappointing answers" to questions submitted by Council of Europe Minister Luca Volonte regarding a "serious violation of the Lanzarote Convention by the Netherlands" in the Joris Demmink pedophilia investigation, Adele van der Plas, Managing Director of the Bakker Schut Foundation and attorney for Turkish victims of Demmink's alleged pedophilia crimes, issued the following statement:

"Despite worldwide attention to the pedophilia scandal involving former Dutch Justice Ministry Secretary-General Joris Demmink and U.S. Congressional inquiries into the Dutch government's inadequate investigation into the alleged crimes, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers has approached this embarrassment in a similar way as the Dutch government – by ignoring the pedophilia scandal and hoping that Demmink's victims will simply give up their fight for justice.  The Committee of Ministers have, as Minister Luca Volonte has stated, 'evaded the question of their own opinion and just referred to the fact that the Dutch authorities themselves thought that they had properly investigated the case in question.'  This is not sufficient. Joris Demmink's victims deserve answers. Dutch citizens who paid Mr. Demmink's salary during his alleged crimes deserve answers. And, quite frankly, anyone who has placed their trust into government in hopes that their elected leaders appoint moral officials to represent their country also deserves an answer.  Despite Mr. Volonte's efforts and the Turkish government appointing a special prosecutor to investigate accusations of pedophilia during Joris Demmink's travels to Turkey, there are no indications that Demmink will face justice any time soon. I urge the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers to answer Mr. Volonte's latest written questions completely and swiftly, so Joris Demmink's victims are not victimized any further."

In Written question No. 631 to the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, Mr. Luca Volonte, Italy, Group of the European People's Party, wrote "In the light of the serious accusations of the victims, that they were raped and sexually abused by [Joris Demmink] when they were only 12 and 14 years old, as well as regarding the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS no. 201, 'Lanzarote Convention'), which guarantees the protection of the rights and safety of victims of such child abuse and which tries to ensure this by obliging member States to avoid contact between the victims and perpetrators within court and law enforcements agency premises."

Mr. Volonte submitted to the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, the following questions:

1. Does the Committee of Ministers agree that with regard to these serious allegations, an investigation should have taken place without the accused staying in his position as the highest civil servant of the Department of Justice of the Netherlands, as happened in this case?
2. Does the Committee of Ministers agree with the Government of the Netherlands, which considers that it has properly investigated the case in question?
3. Is the Committee of Ministers prepared to ask the Dutch authorities to consider opening a full and really independent investigation, possibly with international experts?
4. Is the Committee of Ministers wiling to ask the High Contracting Parties of the Lanzarote Convention to evaluate whether the Netherlands has implemented the convention in law and in practice?

Joris Demmink, the former Secretary General of the Dutch Ministry of Justice, has consistently been linked to the sexual assault of young boys, both in the Netherlands and abroad. In the fall of 1998, an investigation conducted into an Amsterdam brothel linked senior politicians and justice officials to the sexual abuse of young boys. Demmink was specifically identified by one of the young boys as an individual involved in the abuses. According to a former senior official at the Ministry of Justice, this investigation was foiled through the direct intervention of and obstruction by Demmink.

In the mid 1990's, Demmink sexually assaulted numerous boys between the ages of twelve and sixteen in Turkey. The victims of his attacks have come forward and demanded prosecution. Mustafa was twelve at the time he was recruited by police officer Mehemet Korkmaz and brought to Demmink's chambers, where he was repeatedly sexually assaulted. Osman was fourteen at the time he was brought to Demmink and sexually assaulted. Mustafa and Osman have both retained counsel and filed reports against Demmink. Officer Korkmaz, the individual responsible for bringing the boys to Demmink has verified Mustafa's and Osman's accounts. Mustafa, Osman, and Officer Korkmaz are willing to offer sworn testimony to all of the egregious acts they endured and witnessed. A third child victim of Demmink's sexual assaults, Yacine, is now willing to testify in detail about Demmink's sexual assaults.

http://www.bs-foundation.nl/

SOURCE Bakker Schut Foundation

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