Amsterdam District Court grants defence request for ‘European Supervision Order’

On 24 September last, the Amsterdam District Court granted a request to order the prosecution to issue a so-called ‘European Supervision Order’.

The request was filed by Han Jahae and Joost van Bree, both lawyers at JahaeRaymakers, who assist a Dutch businessman suspected by the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) of involvement in investment fraud. The execution of the pre-trial detention order of this suspect had previously already been conditionally suspended by the Amsterdam District Court. One of these conditions was that the suspect was to report every three months at the police station closest to his place of residence. Since the suspect had in the meantime moved to Spain, the defence was of the view the suspect should henceforth report to the Spanish police. According to the defence, an EU framework decision (Framework decision 2009/829/JHA of 23 October 2009 on the application, between Member States of the European Union, of the principle of mutual recognition to decisions on supervision measures as an alternative to provisional detention) recently implemented by the Netherlands offered an appropriate legal basis for such a situation. The PPO disagreed. It was of the view that such a request should not be addressed to the District Court but to the public prosecutor. Furthermore, the PPO was of the view that – should the District Court hold otherwise – the request should be denied on the merits.

The Amsterdam District Court rejected both objections and granted the request (ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2015:6386). The full decision (in Dutch) can be read here.