Netherlands: More cops, prosecutors working anonymously due to organized crime threat

Trails against suspects in organized crime pressure the openness and transparency of the Dutch legal system, NOS reports. Increasingly, detectives' names are blocked out in case files, judges can't be filmed, and prosecutors' names can't be said in court.

Over the past two years, there were 39 cases in which public prosecutors were anonymized, the broadcaster reports based on figures from the Public Prosecution Service (OM). Their names got replaced with numbers in the case files in most cases. In nine cases, prosecutors could not be filmed or drawn. One of these is the case around the murder of Peter R. de Vries. There are also extra security measures around the trials against the violent motorcycle gang Caloh Wagoh and the Marengo process against Ridouan Taghi.

In the De Vries case, a complete criminal file was anonymized for the first time ever. The names of prosecutors, examining magistrates, detectives, experts, and even eyewitnesses were all omitted.

https://nltimes.nl/2022/05/30/cops-prosecutors-working-anonymously-due-organized-crime-threat