Sorry, but I am going to go off topic for one post because of a real Christmas Miracle

On August 24th 2004, Janneke Schoonhoven, the mother of Sara and Ammar (then approx. 9 and 11) reported that he children were kidnapped by their birth father during the vacation they spent with him in his native country of Syria.

While they were with him, the father took the passports of the children and decided against the wishes of his children, that they from that point onwards would stay and live with him in Syria. The children were being held against their wishes in Syria and there was nothing the mother (who had full custody of the children) could do. Syrian law only recognizes the right of the father in custody issues.

Janneke fortunatly was able to occasionally be in contact with her children, but was not allowed to take them home with her.

On July 6th 2006, the children escaped the watchful eye of their father and with a taxi they fled to the dutch embassy in Damascus.

Since that date they have been staying in the embassy building (facilities were made for them there, including a dutch teacher to give them daily private lessons) because they could not leave there out of fear of being taken back to their father. Their father has accused the dutch government and the dutch embassy personnel of kidnapping his children. He even said his children did not want to leave him or Syria (instead of returning home to their classmates and their mother).

But there was no doubt the children wanted to get the hell out of Syria and away from their father. Sara even wrote to the Queen and the prime minister saying how badly she wanted to go home (and her brother too) and that they would rather stay alone at the Embassy for ever rather than go back to her father.

For the past five and a half months the dutch government and the Syrian government have been negotiating the release of the children. Special envoys have been sent, negotiation teams have been deployed, but the Syrians (government) refused as long as the father did not agree to let the children leave.

A few weeks back the Minister of Foreign Affairs himself flew to Syria to negotiate for the release of Sara and Ammar. He said he hoped that they would return home to the Netherlands this year.


Christmas Miracle

When I turned on the TV this morning, the first item on the news was that Sara and Ammar's father has finally agreed to let the children leave. The children have already been loaded upon an airplane home for the Netherlands and in about 1.5 hours from now (15.00 hours dutch time) they will land on Schiphol Airport and they will be spending Christmas with their mother (and their dutch family).

Everybody in the Netherlands is very happy to finally have them home.


Natalee

this year it will most likely be too late for a Christmas Miracle for Beth, Jug, Robin and Dave (and the rest of their families) so let us wish (and for those of religious persuasion pray) that this is the last Christmas that they will be wondering what happened to Natalee and that in 12 months time they will have the answers they so richly deserve to know.


Last but not least

I would like to Wish all the readers of this blog and the readers/posters on Blogs For Natalee a very Merry Christmas and a year in which all your wishes may come true.

I also want to extend a special thank you to Debbie and her trusted and hard working band of mods who keep Blogs for Natalee functioning.

And a special thought on this Christmas for Beth, Robin, Jug, Dave, their families and all the other people in the world who have to celebrate Christmas without their loved one(s).

Gelukkig Kerstfeest from Rammstein



ps. no, it is not my cat LOL

Well, I guess a clear answer is not enough for some

so I am going to have to "up" the ante with regard to the judge commissioner.

Because it seems people either don't want to understand the matter at hand or are just dumb insulting people who know nothing about common decency. Usually those people post under an anonymous tag so that they can spout their hatred without ever standing up for what they apparently believe.

This is one such low life found in the comment section of Michelle's blog:

At Thu Dec 14, 09:46:13 AM EST, Anonymous said...

Great work Freebirds!!
And FINALLY!!! Ramm called on his baloney!! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

Big difference Ramm in what the Provision states and YOUR interpretation..."He was SUPPOSED" to be there.

Some of us are really getting tired of your attempt at insulting our intelligence!!

And PLEASE!!!! "Almost certainly" at the homes of the security guards??!! WOW..that was your best bag of bullsh*t yet!!

Gotta run and get my sh*t boots.

You do more damage than the nuts at the hate sites!! You PRETEND that you are for Justice for Natalee...but the majority of us see right through your BS Ramm!!

Sorry for the language Michelle...but this guy's arrogance, twisting of the facts, negativity and BS has finally got the best of me!!

Keep up the great work Michelle!!

All I can say here, if you have the guts to have an opinion, don't hide under the anonymous tag, it is not a very brave thing to do.



But now back to what I wanted to say to begin with, the actual truth about judges commissioners like Bob Wit and house searches.

The Lawbook

To start here is the dutch article of law about the judge commissioner:

Art. 110. Wetboek van strafrecht

1. De rechter-commissaris kan, op vordering van de officier van justitie en in het gerechtelijk vooronderzoek tevens ambtshalve, ter inbeslagneming elke plaats doorzoeken. Hij kan zich daarbij doen vergezellen van bepaalde door hem aangewezen personen. De vordering vermeldt het strafbare feit en indien bekend de naam of anders een zo nauwkeurig mogelijke omschrijving van de verdachte, alsmede de feiten of omstandigheden waaruit blijkt dat de wettelijke voorwaarden voor uitoefening van de bevoegdheid zijn vervuld.
2. Het doorzoeken van plaatsen overeenkomstig het bepaalde in het eerste lid geschiedt onder leiding van de rechter-commissaris in tegenwoordigheid van de officier van justitie of, in geval van diens verhindering, van een hulpofficier van justitie.

Art. 110. penal law code book 2

1. The examining judge can, on the request of the district attorney and in the course of a judicial pre-inquest in his function as judge, search any place in order to confiscation. He can choose to be accompanied by specific people he chooses. The request mentions the criminal offense/act and if known the name or an as accurate as possible description of the suspect, as well as the facts or circumstances which show that the legal requirements for the judge to exercise this power have been met.
2. The searching of places, as mentioned in the first section of this article happens under the leadership of the examining judge, in the presence of the district attorney, or when the DA is unable to attend, an assistant district attorney.

Wikipedia article

And here is the dutch wikipedia article about the "rechter commissaris" (including the English translation):

rechter-commissaris (in strafzaken) is een rechter die aangewezen is door de president van de rechtbank om tijdens het opsporingsonderzoek dat door de politie plaats vindt, beslissingen te nemen over zaken waarvoor de Officier van Justitie geen bevoegdheden heeft. Denk hierbij bijvoorbeeld aan het aftappen van telefoonlijnen, het inbewaringstellen van verdachten, en het doorzoeken van woningen. Voor dit laatste is in beginsel vereist dat de rechter-commissaris samen met zijn griffier aanwezig is bij deze doorzoekingen, om daar feitelijk leiding aan te geven. Verder moet de rechter-commissaris daar ter plaatse beslissen wat er wel en niet in beslag mag worden genomen, en is de rechter-commissaris gemachtigd tot het treffen van ordemaatregelen.

wikipedia article

judge-commissioner (in criminal cases) is a judge that has been appointed by the president of the court to, during the duration of the police-investigation that is being performed by the police, take decisions that the district attorney is not competent to make. Decisions like tapping phone-lines, incarcerating suspects, and searching houses. For this last function, it is in principle mandatory* that the judge commissioner together with his court clerk, is present at the scene of the house search, to be in factuality the person in charge of the search.
The judge commissioner has to decide at the scene of the search, what can and cannot be impounded/seized from the property, and the judge commissioner is authorized to take measures to keep the peace at the scene of the search.

* in principle means here, that are ways in which the police can search a house without the judge commissioner being present but those are "danger for life and safety" and drugs/weapon-offenses are suspected, and have the stipulation that the suspect must be at home when they want to get into the house. Entering a house/premises when the occupant is out, can only be done with the judge commissioner present.

This was the case for example in a appeals case in front of the dutch supreme court where the owner of a drug-plantation was petitioning the court to throw out the evidence found at his home by the police because of an illegal search and seizure of said drugs-plantation.

The events happened as follows (first dutch, then the English translation):

- dat klachten over een sterke weedlucht en de constatering daarvan aanleiding waren een machtiging ter opsporing van strafbare feiten zonder toestemming van de bewoner van de woning aan [a-straat 1] te [plaats A] af te geven.
- dat -na de onrechtmatige binnentreding- door de politie op de vloer van die woning weed werd aangetroffen en softdrugsgerelateerde goederen.
dat vervolgens verder zoeken wordt gestaakt, de rechter-commissaris wordt ingelicht en op rechtmatige wijze huiszoeking wordt verricht,

- the complaints of a strong odor of weed, which the two officers indeed ascertained for themselves were grounds to get/and receive a warrant to find criminal offenses without needing the permission of the owner.
- that -after the illegal entrance into the house- the police found weed and soft-drugs related paraphernalia on the floor of the house and immediately halted their search, the judge commissioner got informed and a legal search of the house was performed

A few lines below the court writes that the original court that handled the case did not find the search performed by the judge commissioner illegal (while it did find the original police-search to be illegal) and that the evidence gathered by the judge commissioner could be used at trial.

This is what the dutch supreme court had to say about that:

3.5.2. Het middel faalt derhalve voorzover het er over klaagt dat het aantreffen van de verdovende middelen nadat de doorzoeking onder leiding van de Rechter-Commissaris een aanvang had genomen, niet tot het bewijs had mogen worden gebezigd.

3.5.2. The petition fails with regard to the complaint, that the narcotics that were found after the judge commissioner had started a search under his direction/leadership, should be excluded as evidence from the court case.

court-case file (in dutch)


More articles regarding the presence of judge commissioner

There is ample evidence to prove that the judge commissioner is indeed present/leads/conducts as I wrote in my piece from yesterday.

Here goes:

1. De inbeslagneming van de bestanden met de afbeeldingen, die in de telastelegging zijn vermeld, heeft later plaatsgevonden tijdens een doorzoeking op 13 juni 2000 onder leiding van de de rechter-commissaris.

The seizing of the files with the pictures, as mentioned in the formal charges, took place at a later date during the search on June 13th 2000, lead by the judge commissioner

article

2. Op vrijdag 2 juni 2006 heeft de Inlichtingen- en Opsporingsdienst van het Ministerie van VROM (VROM-IOD) samen met het Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (RIVM), onder leiding van het Functioneel Parket van het Openbaar Ministerie in aanwezigheid van een rechter-commissaris te Utrecht een doorzoeking gedaan in een woning in Baarn.

On Friday June 2nd 2006, the intelligence and detection department of the Ministry of VROM, together with the Government institute for public health and enviroment (RIVM), under the leadership of the Functional Office of the Public Prosecution, in attendance of a judge commissioner, have performed a house search on a property in Baarn.

article

3. Op zaterdagavond 15 mei jongstleden vond op vordering van de officier van justitie onder leiding van de Rechter-Commissaris een doorzoeking plaats in een woning in de gemeente Horst in het kader van een onderzoek.

De Rechter-Commissaris heeft tijdens de doorzoeking een groot aantal videobanden met kinderporno, administratieve gegevens en computerapparatuur in beslag genomen.

On Saturday night, May 15th 2004, on the request of the DA, a judge commissioner lead a house search in a property in the city of Horst during an investigation

The judge commissioner, during the search, seized a large number of video-tapes with child pornography, seized the administration and computer equipment.

article

4. Diezelfde ochtend is onder leiding van de rechter-commissaris huiszoeking gedaan in twee woningen in Arnhem.

That same morning, lead by the judge commissioner, two houses in Arnhem were searched

article

5. Onder leiding van de Rechter Commissaris is daarom vandaag huiszoeking gedaan op het bedrijf en zijn 14 runderen in beslag genomen en afgevoerd ter destructie.

Lead by the judge commissioner today there was a search of the property, the company and during that search 14 heads of cattle were seized.

article

6. and there are many more articles of the same type, all stating the presence of the judge commissioner during searches of property. The Judge Commissioner HAS to be present because he and he alone can decide what gets seized and what may stay. You cannot do that from an island away, to decide what to seize and what to search it is imperative and legally obligatory to have the examining judge present at the scene.



Rammstein

It has been a while since I last updated my blog

A lot has happened in that 1.5 months. Some good things like the three main suspects remaining suspects after a judge has decided this in a court-case started by the three suspects. Another good thing has been the attention in the Netherlands for Natalee's case due to an episode of Peter R. de Vries's show about Natalee's disappearance.

Good is also the fact that the dutch police continue to work on the case. Hopefully it will yield the results we all so desperately crave, especially Natalee's parents who really deserve to know the truth about what happened to Natalee and where she is.

But also some not so good things. Our "favorite" hate-monger is back to his old tricks (scaring away the support of all good willing dutch and aruban men, women and children and distorting reality) with his typical brand of hatred, lies and insults against the Dutch, Aruba and of course in the process of his hateful activities, disgracing Natalee's memory who was anything but hateful, deceitful and insulting (three character trades that fit Frankie/Deetch though to a T.


Arubanboycott.blogspot has also been doing it's usual excellent job of telling lies, distorting the truth and spreading their portion of hatred.


Exposing a few Arubanboycott.blogspot lies and "stories":


1. Ben Vocking - An evil little man
ben-vocking-evil-little-man

Insightful as always Michelle comes to the rescue of Eduardo Mathew (big mistake number 1), yes Michelle, Eduardo Mathew, not Alexander (mistake number 2).

It seems she learned little from her association with Joe M. (currently in big trouble with the feds).

Fact 1: Eduardo Mathew is a violent person
Fact 2: Eduardo Mathew is a wife-beater and has violent tendencies
Fact 3: Being a trained Kick-box instructor he knows how to exact damage on others
Fact 4: Eduardo Mathew is not a political prisoner/victim. He is the perpetrator
Fact 5: He was jailed for a relatively short stint in jail for violent offenses of a lesser nature
Fact 6: While in jail, Eduardo Mathew violently attacked Ben Vocking/King. Breaking his skull, cheekbone, eye-socket and sending him in critical condition to the hospital.
Fact 7: For this heinous attack against a defenseless Ben Vocking, Mathew got imprisoned for inflicting serious bodily harm
Fact 8: While in jail he remained a threat to inmates and guards alike. Attacking them to inflict further injuries on yet more innocent bystanders.
Fact 9: While in jail he was put in solitary for too long, something the EU does not condone. He was also kept in a cell that did not come up to minimal standards. For those 2 things the Netherlands was ordered to pay 13,000 euro's to Mathew (10,000 for his "suffering" and 3,000 for legal costs).

All the rest of mr. Mathew's story are mostly lies. People like Eduardo Mathew are not worthy of any support. Natalee's case is not advanced by Arubanboycott.blogspot standing up for wife-beating criminals who prey on defenseless human beings like Mr. Mathew is.


2. Judge Jacob Wit
more-from-natalees-freebirds

In this little story that Michelle posted on her website, the writer asks him/herself a few questions. A few questions and assertions are posted that show complete ignorance of dutch law (something the writer could have avoided if he/she would read that excellent forum of Blogs For Natalee) and of course repeating lies and rumors for which no evidence exists.

Here is the most important question the writer asks him/herself (quote from the above article):

Why did Justice Wit wait for the prosecutor at the van der Sloot home to limit her search areas? Why didn’t he simply make that ruling from the bench in the courtroom? Why did he feel the need to do that from the van der Sloot home?

Why indeed is not that difficult an answer to give. BECAUSE HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AT THE SCENE OF THE SEARCH. Bob Wit (Jacob Wit) was the "rechter commissaris" in this case (examining judge/magistrate). In the dutch legal system, the DA requests the tools (tools that violate civil rights of suspects like house-searches, taps, impounding items) that she feels
are vital to cracking/solving the case and bringing the guilty to trial. To safeguard the rights of all citizens in the Netherlands, the DA has to convince the examining judge to allow her to use those tools.

Like with the house search of the van der Sloot residence, Karin Janssen had to ask the court if she was allowed to search the residence in Oranjestad. The judge then has to agree or disagree with the permission to search, in this case he agreed to the search.

BUT!!!!!!!!!!! that is not the end of the duties of the examining judge. He has to be present at the house-search to lead that search. He does this in the company of the court-clerk whose duty it is to document the house-search. One of the things the judge has to decide is what is going to be searched and what is allowed to be seized from the property.

So in fact, Judge Bob Wit is being assaulted and insulted/smeared with Michelle's lies for DOING HIS JOB!!.

Because there is no evidence that Bob Wit (who is an Curaçao resident) has or ever was the friend of Paul van der Sloot (in fact, the chief justice of the Aruban/Antilles court even said at the beginning of this case that he was appointing judges who had no conflict of interest in this case).

Bob Wit did not violate code of Ethics in this case. On the contrary, his record speaks of a man who is very ethical and trusted in the Kingdom. His functions are/used to be:

- President of the Military Court of the Nether­lands Antilles (1992-present)
- Chairman of the Judicial Working Groups on (a) Videoconfe­ren­cing in Court and (b) Code of Ethics for the Judiciary (2003-present)
- Chairman of the Committee of Supervision of the Securi­ty Servi­ce of Aruba (2004-present)
- Vice-President of the National Committee On Revi­sing the Crimi­nal Code of the Netherlands Antilles (2002-present)
- Chairman of the Board of Discipline for Medical Doctors (1992-1995)

No judge gets to such a position if he does not have impeccable morals and excellent legal qualities, and there is ample evidence so suggest/prove that Bob Wit indeed is such a high standing moral human being.

This above mentioned duty of the Bob Wit as examining judge, also means the rest of the accusations in the story Michelle posted are not worth the pixels they are written in.


My new Natalee video:

I made a new Natalee video for us to enjoy and to spread the word that we are still waiting for justice in Natalee's disappearance and that we will not rest until we get it.