Caribbean Netherlands receives a new Wetboek van Strafvordering. This is what Minister Ferd Grapperhaus of Justice and Security announces in the context of the deliberations in the House of Representatives of a proposed amendment to the current code.
The changes provide that it is punishable on the BES islands to have sex with someone who is insufficiently aware, for example due to alcohol or drug use, to oppose this. The reason for this change is the acquittal a few years ago of a suspect in Bonaire who was accused of having had intercourse with a woman who was in a state of reduced consciousness because of alcohol. The woman reported rape.
A second important change is that the investigative powers of the Public Prosecution Service and the police on Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba are harmonized with those on Curacao. Aruba and Sint Maarten. Grapperhaus calls the current differences undesirable.
New is also the possibility of hearing suspects and witnesses via a video connection. That results, according to the minister, in an effective and efficient handling of matters.
Curacao. Aruba and Sint Maarten are currently working on a completely new Wetboek van Strafvordering. “I intend to, as soon as the new Wetboek van Strafvordering in these countries has been accepted, to propose a similar new Wetboek van Strafvordering for the BES in order to establish a criminal procedural law as uniform as possible. ”
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