The judge may not yet be rid of Gang of Venlo frontman Frenkie P. (47). Frenkie was told Friday by the judge that his life sentence will stand for now, but may still appeal.

Cliff Raafs, who is assisting Frenkie along with Sjanneke de Crom, will explore the appeal option with his colleague and their client in the coming weeks.

Negative opinion
The 40-year-old Venlo resident was sentenced to life in prison in 1996. He is accused of seven murders. Life imprisonment was also life in the Netherlands for quite some time, but for several years now, the Advisory Committee on Life Imprisonment has been able to advise that a prisoner be released anyway. Frenkie, however, received a negative advice in October 2019.

Pieter Baan Center
He then filed summary proceedings against the State to challenge the contents of that opinion. According to Frenkie and his lawyers, there was much to criticize in the preparation of the report. On August 18 they pleaded with the judge in The Hague for a new investigation and a change in the procedure for release. Friday, however, the judge decided otherwise.

It weighs especially heavily that Frenkie did not, or did not sufficiently, cooperate with investigations at the Pieter Baan Center and interviews with the probation service.

Hearsay
"This news is disappointing for our client," said attorney Raafs. "On points they did agree with us: for example, there was no adversarial process during the formation of the opinion. But the judge does not consider those points so weighty that she wants the whole procedure redone."

An appeal beckons. "We have to think about that carefully. We have four weeks to make a decision on this. And we will take that time," Raafs says. "First we are going to study the verdict more carefully. It could just be that the judge made an incorrect decision on some points."

https://www.1limburg.nl/frenkie-p-mogelijk-hoger-beroep-goed-over-nadenken

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