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Netherlands: Court criticises police

01 May 1993

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When the Amsterdam police raided several flats in March 1992 winding up an extensive investigation code-named "Goofy" into a Ghanaian drug smuggling ring, they claimed as many as 10,000 Ghanaian people lived in Amsterdam were illegal aliens, and living at some 1,500 suspect addresses. However the police came in for severe criticism on 27 April by the Court of Appeal. The President of the court Mr H Steenbergen said the figures were incorrect and inappropriate and that there was no evidence to support the exaggerated figures in the dossiers. Mr Steenbergen also disapproved of the premature release of the police views of the case: "It is unacceptable for the police after having arrested fifteen suspects and still during the preliminary investigation, to point an accusing finger at ten thousand people with a similar ethnic background". By divulging such oversimplified stories, Mr Steenbergen said the police caused unfounded fears in the general public. The three suspects were convicted to 10, 8 and 5 years imprisonment respectively.

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