On August 18 2017 the Court of Arnhem reached a decision concerning the complaints of two Turkish boys against the former Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands

On August 18 2017 the Court of Arnhem reached a decision concerning the complaints of two Turkish boys against the former Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands. The complaints were submitted by the  two victims in the Netherlands in 2008. The prosecutor did not choose to pursue an investigation to investigate the serious accusations against Joris Demmink.

In 2014, at the request of the lawyer for the two victims, the Court of Arnhem ordered the prosecutor’s office to investigate the claims made by the victims because there was enough evidence to do so. The decision declared that the prosecutor’s office did everything not to investigate the serious accusations against Demmink. On the 11^th of March 2017, the President of the same court of Arnhem died in an accident while boating on the river in Holland. Following this, a new President was appointed to the court. Right after the tragic death of the President of court, the prosecutor’s office asked the same court to reach a new decision to end the investigation of Joris Demmink because the president had passed away and the new President could therefore reach a new decision. The new president of court refused to do so. On the scheduled date, the 18^th August, the same court decided that the investigation into Joris Demmink could not be continued because the Turkish officials were not cooperating.

That same day the prosecutor’s office invited a handful of selected journalists and told them some baseless stories. Oddly, some of these journalists interpreted these  fairy tales from the prosecutor’s offices as binding orders and published them verbatim without either reading the court’s finding, asking for the reactions of the victims or the victims’ lawyers.

Journalism has a responsibility to ensure impartiality and report all sides. A journalist must properly check all sources publish the truth based on the facts from the undertaking of checks and balances. Journalists must make sure they inform the public truthfully and honestly. A journalist must not write articles on the orders of anyone.

If any normal person reads the file against Joris Demmink and thinks he is innocent, they can have only two reasons:  being too cowardly or being in denial. Both reasons emanate from corruption. Corruption will undermine the correct functioning of the system and allow it to become rotten.

Alas, this is what is happening in Holland’s justice system. If anyone is interested in find out the truth, then they must investigate for themselves and the case file is the first place to start investigating. Those like Wil Thijssen and Elsbeth Stokers in their articles for the Volkskrant newspaper exhibit these two manifestations of cowardice and denial following the court decision of 18 August.

For the public’s attention:

Should anyone claim that the official papers show that the document setting down the dates of travel by Joris Demmink to Turkey is unreliable, you can be sure that this is not true and those individuals are denying the truth. That document is genuine and is proof of Joris Demmink’s travel to Turkey on multiple occasions. If you read the court decision and the files properly, you will see official explanations contained there as proof of what I am saying.

I make this statement because my name was mentioned in false accounts in the Volkskrant newspaper by these two female reporters. I say to them, your reporting is wrong and you are a disgrace to your profession as journalists – whether you are too cowardly to tell the truth or are in denial the outcome is the same. You and your organisation must be ashamed for publishing false accounts like these.

What is more, I reserve my legal rights to consider how to respond most effectively to these and any other libellous and false publications in this regard.

Hüseyin Baybasin

23 August 2017