MAASTRICHT/AMSTERDAM - A 61-year-old resident of Simpelveld, sentenced in absentia to three years in prison in Belgium for hemp cultivation, is escaping that sentence. He is also escaping a previously imposed suspended sentence of two years, which would now be enforced.
The Netherlands is not extraditing him to Belgium because the sentence has now become final. The Netherlands extradites its own nationals only for a criminal investigation and not to have them serve a sentence. This was communicated by the national lawyer to counselor Serge Weening of the Simpelveld native.

Although the so-called surrender chamber of the court in Amsterdam had granted permission to transfer him to Belgium for prosecution, "that ruling cannot be implemented, now that the Belgian sentence has become irrevocable. This has also been established by the Belgian authorities," the country's lawyer wrote.

In September 2006, the man was arrested at the request of the Belgians; he ended up n surrender detention. That detention was suspended: he had to surrender his passport and could go, on condition that he report to the hearing of his case in Amsterdam in early November. "That's what he did," says Weening.

Nor can Belgium ask the Netherlands to let the man serve his sentence here. That would be possible under the "European Convention on the International Validity of Criminal Judgments" (then this treaty allows criminal sentences to be enforced outside the country where they were handed down), were it not for the fact that Belgium is not a signatory to this 1970 treaty. Last week, the Belgian Council of Ministers approved a "preliminary draft law" on consent to the treaty.

The defendant(s) in this case are assisted by: