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Germany/Netherlands: "Radikal" raid legal

01 November 1997

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The district court in Maastricht has decided that the police raid in the Netherlands against a journalist of the German journal Radikal was legal. The journalist's case has been rejected as unfounded and confiscated computer disks will be handed over to the German police. Miguel Diaz' flat in the border town Vaals was raided in December 1996 by Dutch and German police officers. As the production and distribution of Radikal is illegal in Germany but not in the Netherlands, the cross border police cooperation has caused quite a stir (see Statewatch,vol 6 no 5). The Dutch Green party as well as the Liberal party VDD have questioned the legality of the raid. Several days after the raid, the responsible investigating judge in Maastricht was relieved of his duties. His successor has refused to take political responsibility for the raid or to transfer the disks to Germany. Finally, the Dutch Justice Minister Sorgdrager has complained that she was not informed of the raid and stated that she could not understand how Diaz had committed a political offence. The district court was of a different opinion: the German reproach that Diaz' alleged contribution to Radikal constituted membership of a criminal organisation and in that giving publicity to a terrorist organisation (the Red Army Fraction) was also a criminal offence according to Dutch law. A decision by the regional court of appeal in Koblenz in August that Radikal is not a criminal organisation has been ignored by the Maastricht court.

die tageszeitung, 4.11.97.

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