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Netherlands: Police blunder: Moroccan man loses house

01 November 1996

Incorrect information transferred by the Dutch police to Interpol Rabat (Morocco) described a Moroccan man who lived in Holland as a convicted drug dealer. The Moroccan authorities subsequently investigated his entire family and confiscated his house. In March 1996, the Dutch police's criminal information centre (Divisie Centrale Recherche Informatie -CRI) responded to a Moroccan request by reporting that the person concerned had two convictions for violating narcotics legislation and one for possessing an illegal firearm. In September, the man's lawyer managed to get the CRI to send a rectification to Rabat to inform the Moroccan police that in fact in all three cases, the man had been acquitted or the case had been dismissed. The lawyer claims that during their investigation the Moroccan police had tortured some suspects. Earlier this year, the CRI made a similar mistake when it supplied information about the criminal record of a Dutch man with a very common name, which later turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. The innocent man was kept in a Czech jail for several months: even after receiving confirmation that the supplied information was erroneous, the Czech authorities refused to release him and stop the trial. Reacting to this case Green Left MP Mr Mohammed Rabae, who took part in the Van Traa commission investigating police procedures in 1995, has questioned Dutch participation in the Interpol system. He emphasized that Interpol has no formal status and that many participating countries have severe problems with human rights, corruption and the rule of law.