On Tuesday afternoon, the commission rejected the request for the defense of lawyer Roy van der Wal in the case against former No Surrender leader Henk Kuipers (55), reports Dagblad van het Noorden .
Counsel states that his client cannot fully concentrate on the case because he uses medications due to the health issues. The court decided earlier on Tuesday to reject his request to postpone the case, after which Van der Wal submitted a request for challenge.
“For a good judgment, medical expertise is required. The court cannot assess that and attaches more importance to the progress of the trial. The importance of carefulness must give way to a quick settlement. That is an appearance of bias,” said the lawyer of Coopers.
The commission, which consists of three other judges, now decided that the judges in the Kuipers case are not biased. So no new judges have to be appointed.
Case against Kuipers has already been postponed three times
The criminal case against Kuipers started in June last year, but was postponed three times before. The first time because his lawyer was sick and later because Kuipers himself was sick.
Kuipers is suspected of a total of twelve offenses, including the management of a criminal organization, assault and extortion.
Four others are also on trial in the Kuipers case
The trial against Kuipers is part of a larger criminal case involving three other former members of the now banned No Surrender motorcycle club. It is about No Surrender founder Klaas Otto and the former leaders Theo ten V. and Rico R.
The cases against these other suspects have already been dealt with. However, the sentence is pronounced at the same time as that against Kuipers. The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) announced on Tuesday that they have this planned for 11 February.
The case against Kuipers and the other suspects is expected to take months. After the PPS has pronounced the sentence, the defense will make its plea.
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Source: NU.nl