Rotterdam court replaces judges because they saw French state secret

Three judges in a major criminal case are replaced because they could have seen French state secrets. The judges would have been able to view unvarnished passages with state secrets in procedural documents. This gave the judges an information advantage over the Public Prosecution Service (OM) and the defense in the case. And those parties also provide the information is not possible, because it concerns state secrets. Replacement of the judges is therefore the only solution, according to a ruling from the court of Rotterdam published on Friday.

Also read: According to the Public Prosecution Service, Piet Costa is a CEO within international cocaine smuggling

The case in question involves a major investigation to international cocaine trafficking and money laundering. The main suspect in the so-called 26Sartell case is 49-year-old Roger P., alias Piet Costa. The Public Prosecution Service considers him a leader in the international cocaine trade. For example, he would determine prices and rates and issue orders to make payments for drug deals. He would also be responsible for the construction of torture containers in North Brabant.

Police and justice have obtained a lot of information thanks to an EncroChat hack, last year. By cracking the encrypted telephone network, the police were able to see how criminals communicated with each other. The information seen by the judges may have something to do with this. It may have contained information about how the French authorities, who carried out the hack together with the Dutch police, managed to decrypt and crack the message traffic.

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