Rebuttal to Ambassador Bekin's letter to Congressmen Pitts, Wolf, and Smith Regarding Concerns on Criminal Complaints Against Dutch Secretary-General Joris Demmink
The following is a rebuttal to the August 17, 2012 letter from Dutch Ambassador, R.S. Bekink to U.S. Congressman Joseph Pitts:
1.Dutch Weak Link
Ambassador Bekink denies Congressman Pitts’ observation that “the Netherlands may be susceptible to becoming a ‘weak link’ in the chain of anti-sex trafficking efforts.”
The Ambassador is wrong, as many reports point to the Netherlands as ground zero for trafficking in Europe. Investigative reporter Nick Davies in a November 27, 2000 Guardian article describes Amsterdam as a center for pedophiles. More recently, in November 2010, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights urged Holland to continue and intensify its efforts to combat trafficking as the Netherlands remains a destination and transit country for trafficking.
It is difficult to understand why the Ambassador would take offense to the Congressmen Pitts’s observation, especially when the Dutch government has taken steps to weaken, not strengthen, their anti-trafficking efforts by eliminating federal anti-vice squads during a recent government re-organization.
2.Tier 1 Status
The U.S. government recognizing the Netherlands as Tier 1 status in the most recent State Department report on Trafficking in Persons was a monumental mistake that needs to be acknowledged and corrected. Lobbying from the Dutch government and U.S. Embassy in the Netherlands resulted in Holland’s Tier 1 status, with little serious investigation of Dutch anti-trafficking actions taking place. There are nearly no truly independent child advocacy groups existing in the Netherlands, with nearly all such groups under direct or indirect control of the Dutch government.
3.Meeting Dutch Embassy.
Ambassador Bekink’s invitation to meet with Congressman Pitts, one of the co-signers of the referenced letter to Chairman Ehler, while seemingly reasonable and even laudable would only provide the Dutch another public relations opportunity in their continuing efforts to conceal the criminal activities of Secretary General Demmink. Much like previous Embassy meetings with U.S. non-governmental organizations that focus on child rape, any such meeting would be useless without the Dutch government first looking into the underlying allegations in this matter and ceasing from their relentless efforts to shield Demmink from scrutiny. The embassy is Demmink’s most loyal and effective lobbyist on American soil.
4. Independent Public Prosecution and the Demmink investigation
In his letter to Congressman Pitts, Ambassador Bekink writes “The Public Prosecution Service in the Netherlands has the full and independent authority to investigate any criminal allegation against any person within its jurisdiction. The allegations against Mr. Demmink were thoroughly investigated by the Public Prosecution Service, in full accordance with the Dutch Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure. The Public Prosecution Service decided that the accusations were unfounded. Furthermore, it established that Mr. Demmink was not in Turkey in the period in question. Decisions not to prosecute were upheld by the court of appeal.”
This response is false on many levels. According to Dutch criminal law, there has never been a real criminal investigation , of Secretary General Demmink. Mr. Demmink has never had to answer to the diverse serious criminal accusations against him and the Ambassador’s letter completely distorts the truth on this point.
Dutch law provides that the Dutch Public Prosecution Service must act as independently, but they never did so during the fictitious investigations of Demmink. Instead, as voluminous correspondence shows, they were constantly constrained and directed by Mr. Demmink’s own Ministry of Justice, which eventually pressured the Service to shut down any further investigations.
In 1998, the Netherlands was in shock over the “Rolodex” investigation, which targeted high-ranking Dutch officials and politicians accused of abusing and exploiting young boys in Amsterdam brothels. According to leading investigators in that case, as soon as Demmink became a person of interest in that matter, the investigation was shuttered. Immediately, law enforcement officials on the case were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements and were sworn to secrecy regarding all information pertaining to Demmink and other high ranking officials involvement in this shocking behavior.
It is no secret to the Dutch Embassy and it has been well-documented that two Turkish boys, Osman B. and Mustafa Y., filed separate criminal charges against Demmink for sexual abuse and rape in the mid-1990s, when they were 11- and 14-years-old, respectively. These allegations were never properly prosecuted in accordance with Dutch criminal law. Indeed, Dutch authorities never even investigated the criminal charges filed by Mustafa against Demmink in September 2008 and May 2010. Dutch authorities dismissed the allegations after demanding that Mustafa first had to travel to the Netherlands to officially answer their questions, an impossible request to a young Turkish citizen of meager means. Meanwhile the boy was heavily threatened and abused in Turkey (his tongue was cut with a razor blade), in an effort to quash his complaint. Pressure intensified against him to withdraw his charges against Demmink, which the boy never did.
Osman B. also filed a criminal charge against Demmink in May 2010. He was able to marshal resources and travel to the Netherlands, where he was interrogated in February 2011. However, as with the other criminal complaints against Demmink, a thorough criminal investigation following the Dutch Code of Criminal Procedure was never even initiated. Five witnesses with direct knowledge about this crime were waiting in Turkey to be interviewed by Dutch prosecutors, but they were ignored.
The Turkish policeman who was Demmink’s security officer during the Secretary-General’s visits to Turkey and who has since admitted
The same disregard for the truth occurred with the third Turkish boy sexually abused by Demmink at the time, Yacine, who also told his story to the Turkish journalist Kazmali. He also was willing to give evidence in Turkey to Dutch authoritites. The former chief of the Istanbul police, Necdet Menzir (also former Minister of Transport in Turkey), was also willing to testify about Demmink’s visits to Turkey in the 1990s and the fact that his police officers were ordered to protect Demmink. Dutch law enforcement was informed about this criminal evidence and by the Turkish journalist Kazmali who also travelled to the Netherlands to give an official statement to the police.
The National Prosecution Office never even started an official criminal investigation, in direct violation of the Dutch Code on Criminal Procedure. Only a so-called ‘exploratory’ investigation was conducted, which is a violation of established Dutch criminal procedure. Unlike in the United States, it only takes an anonymous tip in the Netherlands to initiate not only an investigation, but aggressive police actions, including the arrest of a criminal suspect. Yet despite the overwhelming amount of evidence and abundance of primary witnesses available to authorities in the multiple allegations against Mr. Demmink, prosecutors posited that there were insufficient grounds to call Mr. Demmink a suspect or to start an official criminal investigation against him.
Without an official criminal investigation, based on the Dutch Code of Criminal Procedure, the hands of the prosecutors were, in their own words, completely tied. Without an official suspect and criminal investigation, prosecutors lacked the authority to travel to Turkey to interrogate the available witnesses and to properly investigate the data of Demmink’s official and non-official trips in the 1990’s. Instead of performing its own research, the prosecutor’s office simply accepted Demmink’s “alibi” - that he never visited Turkey since 1987.
However, yet another journalist, who was more diligent than the investigators, asked the Ministry of Justice for travel dates of high-ranking Dutch officials who traveled abroad in the 1990s. The journalist was told that all documentation regarding this matter was mysteriously destroyed. This destruction of evidence led the prosecutor to state in February 2012 that investigators could not determine whether Demmink traveled to Turkey in the 1990s.
Therefore, any statement in the letter to Congressman Pitts pointing out that a Dutch investigation cleared Demmink of any travel to Turkey in the 1990s is not true.
Moreover, Turkish authorities have leaked documents proving that, notwithstanding his denials, Joris Demmink did indeed enter Turkey in the 1990s. At the time of his travel to Turkey, Mr. Demmink was Director-General of International Affairs of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and a member of the EU K4 committee focused on the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. Even without the travel documents received from Turkey, it is inconceivable for the Dutch to claim that a high-ranking European official with duties specifically focused on Turkey’s conflict with the Kurds would not have visited Turkey during the 1990s. Unfortunately, in spite of having the Turkish documentation proving Demmink entered their nation, the Dutch authorities once again dropped the ball and did nothing to verify these documents, which would have supercharged the criminal investigation against Demmink.
Unfortunately for Mr. Demmink and the Dutch authorities, several sources within Turkey have confirmed that the information confirming the dates of Joris Demmink’s travel to Turkey is securely stored in the computers of the Turkish intelligence service. The latest information confirming Demmink’s travel dates was received from a Turkish prosecutor who recently started an investigation against Demmink and two of his confederates (for corruption and child abuse) in Turkey: the former Minister of Interior Mehmet Agar and the former police and intelligence chief Emin Arslan. In 2008, Arslan threatened one of the victimized boys (Mustafa) who had filed a criminal charge against Demmink in the Netherlands, in order to force him to withdraw his accusations. Documentation on Mustafa’s complaints and the threats made against him by Arslan is available. Thanks to this latest investigation occurring in Turkey, it is now known that Demmink entered Turkey with an alias, on at least three occasions in the 1990’s, contravening his denials.
The validity of Demmink’s travel dates to Turkey are also confirmed by sources including the “EK RAPOR” (report) of the senior Turkish intelligence official Huseyin Celebi. Celebi introduces himself in his letter of February 2010 as the Turkish Intelligence official who wrote the EK RAPOR in 2006 to inform the highest (military, political and juridical) level officials in Turkey. In his report, he was the first to reveal what Demmink did travel to Turkey during his mid-1990s and how these criminal acts were used to blackmail the Netherlands in order to force the prosecution and conviction of the Kurdish activist Huseyin Baybasin for non-existent crimes. In this EK RAPOR Celebi for example wrote (see our website: www.bs-foundation.nl/site/wp-content/media_en_files/2011/09/aangifte_tegen_demmink_aug2011.pdf) :
“Demmink had ook in Turkije soortgelijke “party’s” gerealiseerd.
Omdat in 1995 in Bodrum tijdens zo’n “party” een wapen afging, is de politie ter plaatse gekomen.”
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“Joris Demmink, die zich speciaal heeft beziggehouden met de zaak van Hüseyin Baybasin in Nederland, is in november 1995 als toerist hier geweest en in juni 1996 in Antalya voor een internationale bijeenkomst. Daarnaast is hij Turkije in- en uitgereisd in de jaren 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 en meestal wiste hij zijn sporen. Deze gegevens zijn verzameld bij officiële en speciale inlichtingendiensten. Er is ook geconstateerd dat hij onder verschillende namen Turkije is binnengereisd”
English translation:
“Demmink also participated in similar (pedophile) parties in Turkey. Because a gun went off during a party in Bodrum in 1995, the police arrived.“
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“Joris Demmink, who was especially occupied with the case against Huseyin Baybasin in the Netherlands, visited Turkey as a tourist in 1995 and for an international meeting in Antalya in June 1996. Besides that, he entered and left Turkey in the years 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003 and in most cases he wiped his tracks. This information is collected by official and special Intelligence Services. It is also known that he entered Turkey under different names.”
Despite copies of the EK RAPOR in Turkish and Dutch and English being sent to Dutch authorities, the Public Prosecutor’s office actually asserted to the attorney of the victims that, in their view, Hüseyin Celebi did not even exist! Hüseyin Celebi then offered to prove he existed (!) and to answer the questions of Dutch authorities regarding his report and accusations. This offer was subsequently ignored by the Public Prosecutor’s office
5.”Dutch Prosecution and Courts Independent”
The Ambassador stresses that the Dutch Prosecution and Dutch Courts act independently. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact at the very time the Dutch Ambassador’s letter was sent to Congressman Pitts and his colleagues, a major Dutch newspaper reported on the ongoing corruption of judges (see attachment) and their scandalous efforts to influence the judicial process.
Despite four separate police reports filed against Demmink for sexual abuse, nothing has been done. Requests were made to receive the travel dates of Demmink in the 1990s, the period that he visited Turkey according to many witnesses. The Dutch judicial system and police said that it was investigated and no proof was found that he entered Turkey after 1987. Now, we are told all travel documents and expense reports related to Demmink were destroyed five years ago, as these requests were filed. In a nation serious about judicial integrity, this would be called obstruction of justice and those who destroyed these documents would be brought up on charges. In the Netherlands, they just continue their work unimpeded.
6. Martijn
The Ambassador also finds issue with the Congressmen’s concerns about the pro-pedophile group Martijn. In his letter, the Ambassador writes: “Vereniging Martijn was banned and effectively dissolved by a district court at the request of the Public Prosecution Service. The Dutch Ministry of Justice has never taken any action to protect Vereniging Martijn, either by invoking the right to freedom of expression or otherwise.”
Martin existed and operated in the Netherlands from 1982 until 2012. For those 30 years, the Dutch Ministry of Justice took no actions to impede the work of this pro-pedophile group. It was only after the international clamor over the Demmink case started to focus light on official abuse in the Netherlands that the group was shut down. Additionally, when cases in which young kids under two-years-old were victimized came to light, Dutch public protest intensified. The Ministry of Justice could no longer remain silent. The Public Prosecutor did not start an investigation against the organization, but asked a civil court to dissolve the organization. This request was granted on June 27, 2012. According to the Dutch media, the organization appealed this decision. It is important to remember that serial pedophile Robert M. was recently discovered in the United States, after repeated warnings were ignored in the Netherlands.
7.Child Abuse Fight
The fight of child abuse, human trafficking and sexual exploitation are not served by constant and unwavering official Dutch government support of sexual deviants like Demmink. When the documentary film Dutch Injustice was produced, the filmmakers visited the child brothel where one of Demmink’s victims worked and was abused.
Twenty years later, the brothel is still active and well known in Amsterdam. Why haven't Dutch authorities done anything to close it?
Law enforcement officials and investigators related to this case and other child sex investigations confirm that Demmink is a pedophile and that his position, power, and network has insulated him from prosecution. The Dutch Embassy in Washington’s actions following the Congressional inquiry is a further example of this.
Not surprisingly, another case of sexual abuse of very young kids during the same period in Zandvoort was never properly investigated either (see the attached article of Nick Davies, Guardian, 27-11-2000: Amsterdam as a center for pedophiles).
8. Unreliable testimony.
The Dutch government asserts that testimony against Demmink is unreliable. Shockingly, they claim this based on the testimony of one of the boys raped by Demmink. They note that the boy victim claims he was forced face-down on a bed and anally penetrated by Demmink. The government claims that his heart wrenching statement is unreliable because it is not certain whether Demmink penetrated the boy’s anus with his finger or his penis! The poor victim, made to answer this humiliating question, replied that the attack was so horribly painful that he closed his eyes due to fear, and thus did not know whether he was being violated with a finger or a penis! From this horrific exchange, Dutch authorities concluded there was insufficient evidence.
9 . Unsubstantiated allegations
Dutch intransigence that the allegations against Demmink have never been substantiated has gone on for decades. Author Nick Davies posits that Demmink’s illicit behavior on Turkish soil has given Turkey the ability to blackmail the head of the Dutch Justice Ministry. The international security implications of this accusation are stunning. Can one imagine the reaction would be if it is discovered that the Netherlands, in their continued effort to cover up the behavior of their high ranking Justice Ministry official, has been compromised?
Futhermore, it has been alleged continually that Demmink is engaged in other criminal behavior, beyond his predatory sexual misdeeds. The media in the Netherlands have focused on his suspicious accounting procedures and have provided a roadmap for a significant fraud case to be brought against the Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice. None of these allegations have been pursued by Dutch Justice either.
article. http://vorige.nrc.nl/binnenland/article2357745.ece/Topman_Justitie_dineerde_voor_13_mille
10. Justice Minister Takes Child Abuse Seriously
If Minister Opstelten considers child abuse a serious crime, then why does it continue to flourish in the Netherlands? Why has nothing been done with the accusations, proof, documentation, and stories against Demmink? “Keep in mind that Joris Demmink has admitted to having sexual relations with young boys without asking their age, according to two journalists who wrote an article in the Dutch publication ,Panorama– yet the justice system in the Netherlands seems to have provided him with not only a “get out of jail” card, but a ticket to avoid all investigations. The time is coming where the Netherlands will have to choose between covering up the crimes of a child trafficking pedophile and taking its place in the family of nations concerned with justice.
You can download scanned PDF version of Dutch Ambassador’s letter here