10/29/2021 9:11 AM
To DCOM - LO
Dear Minister Grapperhaus, Mr Cornelissen and Mr Hallema,
To our surprise, we received a response from you on 30 September to our e-mail of 13 September, whereas you had previously indicated that you would not respond to our letter until the Hendriks Committee had completed its work.
In your current response, you indicate that you appreciate our contribution to the Hendriks Committee. This reaction surprises us, because our last letter contained nothing new for you. Moreover, the J&V Committee had long ago indicated that it would pass on one of our letters to the Committee, which means that the Hendriks Committee has obviously known of our existence for a long time. Although the committee had spoken to other advocacy groups a long time ago, we had not heard from them until now.
All in all, a curious state of affairs, in which it is striking that your change of course takes place just after one of the people's representatives, Mr Van Meijeren, has announced that he will be submitting a new motion to bring about a truly independent investigation into organised sadistic abuse.
We have indeed received an invitation from the Hendriks Committee. We have written to the committee saying that we trust that the majority of our people's representatives are clear-headed and thinking, and that the new motion will be adopted. In the unlikely event that it is rejected, we will reconsider the committee's request. However, it is clear in advance that, given the position of the Hendriks Committee, any discussion will necessarily be limited to generalities.
On behalf of a group of mental health practitioners,
Ms. Aline Terpstra,
GZ-psychologist BIG
On September 30, 2021 at 8:41 AM DCOM - LO <dcom-lo@minjenv.nl> wrote:
Dear Mrs Terpstra,
Thank you for your letter of 13 September.
As my ministry has previously informed you, the members of the Hendriks Committee have been carefully selected. The Hendriks Committee operates completely independently.
As I understand it, the Hendriks Committee undertook its work with care and also entered into discussions with, for example, both victims of ritual (sadistic) abuse and professionals who, in one way or another, are concerned with (the consequences of) ritual (sadistic) abuse.
I think that the knowledge and experiences of you and your colleagues, as mental health care practitioners, can be a valuable addition to the investigation by this committee. I have therefore asked the chairman of the Hendriks Committee to contact you. I would appreciate it if you would seriously consider this offer by the Hendriks Committee. However, it is up to you whether you want to make use of the offer to enter into dialogue and thus contribute to this investigation.
Dear Minister Grapperhaus, Mr Cornelissen and Mr Hallema,
In your response, you evade our key question for the third time. It is as follows:
If the victims' stories of injustice that they encounter in their attempts to report them really 'do not leave you unmoved', as you wrote elsewhere:
What good reason do you have then - as a minister whose task it is to ensure that justice is done to the disenfranchised in this country and to protect the rule of law – NOT to do everything possible to put together a commission that victims DO trust? So that they finally dare to talk and there is a real chance that the truth will come out and a path to justice will be found?
In the absence of a substantive response, we note the following:
- A motion was passed in October 2020 calling for independent investigation into the nature and extent of organised sadistic, including ritual, abuse;
- All three parties representing victims have urgently requested that this commission be appointed in a way that is truly independent of the judiciary. So that victims, including those who tell about links of the perpetrator network with the judiciary/police/judicial authorities, dare to talk;
- Grapperhaus did not heed this urgent appeal. He appointed Mr. Hendriks and Ms. Slotboom himself, even without consulting the three parties;
- Hendriks and Ms Slotboom then sought a third member, Ms Mooren, again without any consultation with the 3 parties.
- Hendriks publishes with Mr. Van Koppen, former LEBZ member. Ms Mooren publishes with Ms Van Nierop, chairperson LEBZ. These are precisely the two people who are not trusted by victims of ritual abuse. Mr. Van Koppen ridicules victims in the press. Ms Van Nierop has absolutely no credit with victims because of the nature of her publications and as chairwoman of the LEBZ. Yet another step in which the commission shows that it makes no effort whatsoever to regain the trust of victims.
- The committee has decided to investigate only investigative methods. In doing so, it ignored the original request of the motion. The motion called for an investigation into the nature and extent of the crime, and for advice on tracing on the basis of that investigation.
And we conclude the following:
- The committee will in no way emulate, let alone extend, the thorough work of Sanne Terlingen and Huub Jaspers (Argos investigative journalists).
- Advice on improving investigative methods is much less useful if there is no overview of the possible involvement of the police/judicial authorities in the culprit network and if this is not taken into account.
- Many victims will not talk in this committee, especially those who tell about the involvement of high-ranking members of the judiciary/police/judicial authorities.
We are convinced that it is certainly possible to set up a committee that can uncover the nature and extent of organised sadistic abuse. However, it is clear that you are not going for this. The question that remains for us is: why not?
On behalf of a group of 22 mental health practitioners,
Aline Terpstra-van Hijum,
GZ-psychologist BIG
On June 22, 2021 at 5:53 PM DCOM - LO <dcom-lo@minjenv.nl> wrote:
Dear Mrs Terpstra,
In reference to your e-mail of 9 June, the following.
The Ministers of Justice and Security and of Legal Protection take the victims of crime extremely seriously. Every victim of a crime can make a report to the police. The police must record the report, if the victim so wishes. This also applies to victims of sex offences. The victim has a right to legal assistance. Legal aid can also be offered by the legal profession when reporting a crime.
The vice squad informs the victim about his rights and obligations in an informative interview, explains the reporting procedure, the manner and frequency of contact and also which other agencies can provide help. The vice squad also treats the victim with the utmost respect and, in line with its objective, investigates the legal truth.
When a victim needs a different kind of help or support, a staff member of Victim Support Nederland or the Centre for Sexual Violence can further assist the victim.
The House of Representatives has asked the Minister of Justice and Security to commission an independent investigation into the organised sadistic abuse of minors, as well as the LEBZ.
The minister is implementing two motions of the Lower House.
With regard to the motion for an independent investigation into organised sadistic abuse of minors, the Minister set up the Hendriks Committee. You have already been informed of the duration of this committee in a previous letter. The Minister looks forward with confidence to the final report in the spring of 2022.
The WODC will supervise the independent investigation into the functioning of the LEBZ. The WODC is completely independent. The Minister also looks forward to this independent investigation with confidence.
For your information, I enclose this mail:
a. The Regulations on Scientific Independence of the WODC and,
b. The Policy Framework-WODC.
I trust this has informed you sufficiently. I propose to resume correspondence only after the completion of the aforementioned reports.
Sincerely,
The Minister of Justice and Security,
on behalf of these,
Directorate-General for Police and Security Regions,
Programme Manager, Police Policy Development,
H.G.M. Cornelissen
From: Aline Terpstra <aterpstra@phullon.nl>
To: DCOM - LO <dcom-lo@minjenv.nl>
Date: June 9, 2021 at 1:09 PM
Subject: RE: URGENT! This appointed committee organized sadistic abuse can NOT accomplish goal!
Dear Minister Grapperhaus, Mr Hallema and Mr Cornelissen,
In your response, you do not answer our question. You again share already known facts and you state that the judiciary in the Netherlands is fair, independent and impartial. You too know that this is the ideal picture. Practice is much more complicated. Shocking stories about partiality, conflicts of interest and unacceptable ancillary positions of judges appear in the media with great regularity. The ideal picture which you have sketched is therefore by no means the experience of many victims of (organized and ritual) sexual abuse.
This is precisely the impasse. Victims of organised and ritual violence no longer dare to report it. Or they do and run into a wall, like the girl Lisa. Society and politics, you too, keep saying: report it, the judge is honest and he must judge.
To finally get out of this impasse after so many decades a commission would investigate. A commission that would be completely independent of the judiciary and the police.
After all, this committee needs information from victims if it is to do its job properly. We - as therapists who are in contact with victims - have told you that many victims have no confidence in this Committee, precisely because it was appointed directly by you, the Justice Department, without even consulting the parties involved. The Transgenerational Violence Knowledge Centre also indicates that the distrust of survivors and care providers towards the police and the judicial authorities, and by extension the Committee, is considerable. The fact that you yourself have confidence in the Committee, as you write, makes no difference whatsoever.
Therefore again our demand:
If the victims' stories of injustice that they encounter in their attempts to report them really 'do not leave you unmoved', as you wrote elsewhere:
What good reason do you have then - as a member of government whose job it is to ensure that justice is done for the disenfranchised in this country and to protect the rule of law – not to do everything possible to put together a committee that victims can trust? So that they finally dare to talk and there is a real chance that the truth will come out and a path to justice will be found?
As for the path you have chosen to investigate the LEBZ, to our great disappointment you have once again failed to opt for independence. In an earlier letter we gave you a detailed explanation of why the WODC cannot be regarded as independent, even if it were to contract this out.
We ask you to give us a substantive answer to our question within two weeks. Should our urgent request require further explanation, we would be pleased to meet with you in person.
On behalf of a group of 22 mental health practitioners,
Ms. Aline Terpstra-van Hijum,
GZ-psychologist BIG
On May 27, 2021 at 7:43 AM DCOM - LO <dcom-lo@minjenv.nl> wrote:
Dear Mrs Terpstra,
In response to your email of 24 May
The Minister of Justice and Security has confidence in the Hendriks Committee. And that the Hendriks Committee conducts its investigations professionally and with complete independence.
The Hendriks Committee will have an action plan ready in the summer of 2021 and will submit the final report of the independent investigation in the spring of 2022. The Minister of Justice and Security will then give a policy response to this report to the Lower House of Parliament.
I do not share your view of the judiciary at all. In the Netherlands, the legislative, executive and judiciary powers are separated. The judiciary is at the service of our society. Fair, independent and impartial: this is how the judiciary makes the difference between right and wrong, between trust and distrust, between justice for all and the right of the strongest. The Dutch judges reach their verdict in an independent and impartial manner in the cases that are brought before them.
Sincerely,
The Minister of Justice and Security,
on behalf of these,
Directorate-General for Police and Security Regions,
Program Manager, Police Policy Development,
Hans Cornelissen
1:43 PM (sent on May 24, 2021)
To DCOM - LO
Dear Minister Grapperhaus, Mr Hallema and Mr Cornelissen,
Our letter is not about assumptions, but facts:
1. It is a fact that many victims do not trust justice and government.
2. It is a fact that this distrust did not fall out of the sky, as you know from the collection of stories with sickening experiences of victims with the judicial system. In your letter to Kaleidoscope you state that the stories of victims' experiences with the police and the judiciary 'do not leave you unmoved'.
3. It is also a fact that in recent decades there have been lawsuits against high-ranking officials for paedosexual abuse, which strongly suggest that they were torpedoed from above. In the case of the rolodexaffair, information was leaked from higher up, as a result of which a criminal investigation into the alleged paedosexual crimes of four high-ranking officials had no chance at all. Another example is the failed trial of the girl Lisa, which Argos reported about in a first and second broadcast. And as you know, there is much more.
In the six months that have passed, we have indicated in several letters to the House that - in order to generate trust among victims - it is essential that the parties representing victims are involved in establishing the committee. This is so that victims - through these parties - can think along with the committee. Despite this, you chose to appoint two committee members yourself, without any consultation with these parties.
You will understand that, for many victims and practitioners, your assumption of the scientific independence of the committee carries no weight whatsoever. Trust is won not by words, but by deeds. You have so far failed to take the necessary action.
While you, for your part, have made no effort whatsoever to gain this trust - even the Committee's email address is from the central government - you trust that therapists and victims will 'in confidence give their contribution to the independent investigation'. We have written to you in earlier letters, which you can find on the website www.lichtopsrm.com You can read it again in detail why this will not be the case. This committee will therefore not achieve its objective!
Now that we can once again tell you in advance that this committee cannot achieve a result, we would like to put the following question to you:
Question:
There has been radio silence for 25 years in the field of research on organized sadistic and ritualistic child abuse. The Netherlands hosts 70% of the European - also sadistic - childporno and worldwide 50%. It is therefore beyond discussion that sadistic childporno exists. There are many unsuccessful trials against high-ranking figures, devastating experiences with the judiciary and a national police body, the LEBZ, which in many ways - directly and indirectly - discredits victims behind the scenes, see for example the recent broadcast of Argos. If in the world of sadistic child abuse high-ranking people indeed play a role, our constitutional state has a very big problem.
Against this background we ask you this question: what good reason do you have - as a minister whose task it is to ensure that justice is done for the disenfranchised in this country and to protect the rule of law – NOT to pull out all the stops to put together a commission that victims have confidence in? So that they finally dare to talk and there is a real chance that truth will come on the table and a path to justice?
Please respond to our inquiry within two weeks.
Kind regards,
on behalf of a group of 22 mental health practitioners,
Ms Aline Terpstra-van Hijum,
GZ-psychologist BIG
On May 17, 2021 at 4:20 PM DCOM - LO <dcom-lo@minjenv.nl> wrote:
Dear Mrs Terpstra,
Attached is the response to your email.
Kind regards,
Joost Hallema
Directorate of Communication
Ministry of Justice and Security
Message attached:
Dear Mrs Terpstra,
In response to your email of May 15, the following.
In the email of 6 May you were informed that the Hendriks Committee is to carry out an independent investigation, as requested by the Lower House. In this independent investigation the Hendriks Committee will consult all available sources, as stated in the instructions to the Committee. The Committee will first draw up a plan of approach, which will be ready in the summer of 2021. The final result of the Hendriks Committee's independent investigation will be submitted to me in the form of a report in the spring of 2022.
We cannot go along with your assumptions. We are assuming the professionalism and scientific independence of the committee. We also assume that the committee will make use of contradictory information. We trust that the sources, such as therapists and victims, will give their contribution to the independent investigation in confidence. Your earlier letter to the Lower House of Parliament of September last has been forwarded to the Committee, as the Minister has informed the Lower House. You can reach the Hendriks Committee at the following email address:
secretariaatcommissiehendriks@rijksoverheid.nl
Sincerely,
The Minister of Justice and Security,
on behalf of these,
Directorate-General for Police and Security Regions,
Program Manager, Police Policy Development,
Hans Cornelissen
RE: URGENT! This appointed committee organized sadistic abuse can NOT accomplish goal!
5/15/2021 4:17 PM
To DCOM - LO
Dear Minister Grapperhaus and Mr Hallema,
We are aware of what you are telling us in the email below. As you understand, we are following developments closely.
Our request to Minister Grapperhaus was to provide a substantive response to our letter. In our letter, we explain why the Hendriks Committee, which you established, will not be able to uncover the truth about organized sadistic abuse. These reasons are not related to the content of the report of the commission this summer.
We therefore ask you to provide a substantive response to our letter and the proposal it contains within two weeks.
Kind regards,
on behalf of a group of 22 mental health practitioners,
Ms. Aline Terpstra-van Hijum,
GZ-psychologist BIG
On May 6, 2021 at 7:57 AM DCOM - LO <dcom-lo@minjenv.nl> wrote:
Dear Mrs Terpstra,
On behalf of the Minister of Justice and Security, I am sending you the following reply:
In response to your email of 16 April, requesting a response to a letter you sent to Mr Heerma of the CDA in the Lower House, the following is said.
The House of Representatives has asked for an independent study to be conducted into the nature and extent of organized sadistic abuse of children and to include the experiences of survivors of ritual abuse and their therapists so that the results can be used to effectively track down these networks.
The WODC has let it be known that it cannot carry out this research in a scientifically responsible manner. It was therefore decided to set up a committee.
The Ministry of Justice and Security knows the relevant field and has asked Mr. Prof. Jan Hendriks and Ms. Dr. Anne-Marie Slotboom to serve as chair and member respectively. Mr. Hendrikx and Ms. Slotboom are well suited for this assignment.
The commission's task is to review all available information regarding the aforementioned phenomenon of organized sadistic abuse of minors, using as many sources as possible and speaking to everyone (including victims, therapists, scientific sources and experts in this specific field). The commission will present a plan of action in June/July of this year.
I await the committee's report in the summer of this year.
Kind regards,
Joost Hallema
Directorate of Communication
Ministry of Justice and Security
From: Aline Terpstra
Sent: Friday, 16 April 2021 13:41
To: Secretariat - Minister of Justice and Security
Subject: URGENT! This appointed committee organized sadistic abuse can NOT accomplish goal!
To Minister Grapperhaus,
We, a group of 22 mental health care practitioners, sent the enclosed letter to the members of the Dutch Lower House this week. Please take note of this letter and let us know your reaction within two weeks.
Kind regards,
on behalf of a group of 22 mental health care practitioners
Ms. Dr. Aline Terpstra
GZ-psychologist BIG
English (UK) 
Nederlands