Sison’s jail conditions meet intl standards – Dutch spokesman

Sison’s jail conditions meet intl standards – Dutch spokesman

By LOUI GALICIA
ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau

Amid an allegation of violation of rights of a detained Philippine communist leader, the Dutch Ministry of Justice said that the Netherlands prison system meets international standards, reported ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau.

Ministry of Justice Spokesman Han Janssens reacted to the allegation of National Democratic Front negotiating panel chief Luis Jalandoni of the Dutch government’s "scandalous violation" of international laws and basic rights of Jose Maria Sison who was reportedly placed in solitary confinement days after his arrest.

"I never heard that the Dutch prison system doesn’t meet the international standards," Janssens claims in a telephone interview.

Janssens said that prisoners in the Netherlands are allowed to file complaints regarding their treatment.

"If a prisoner has complaints about his treatment, there’s this procedure where he can apply these complaints to an independent commission which is located in every prison in the Netherlands or he can get in touch with his lawyer," Janssens explained.

Jalandoni complained that Sison is not allowed visitors at the prison, barred from reading newspapers and watching TV.

More importantly, Jalandoni said that Sison is not allowed to receive his medicine.

Although Dutch government regulations do not allow Janssens to provide specific information on individual detainees, he said that prisoners in the Netherlands have the same medical rights as people outside the prison.

"Every prison in the Netherlands has a medical staff and every prisoner who enters the prison for the first time will be seen by a medical staff there and one of the questions there is do you use medicines, what kind of medicines," Janssens said.

The spokesman explained that the medical staff then gets in touch with the prisoner’s physician or family doctor in order to discuss whether these medicines are necessary and get the correct doses so that no mistakes are made.

Sison, who is detained at the Scheveningen prison in The Hague is scheduled to appear on Friday before a court at the Palace of Justice which is located at the center.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office said that it will seek that Sison be incarcerated for an additional fourteen days.

"We will ask the investigative judge to extend the custody [of Sison] for fourteen days. That’s the normal procedure under Dutch law. And in the end of the period, a court that will consist of three judges will make a decision about further detention," spokesman Wim de Bruin said.
Sison’s allies are confident that he will be released Friday.

The Public Prosecutor also seemed confident, because de Bruin was already anticipating further interviews with this correspondent.

"I think in the coming months, we will have much contact," de Bruin said.

SOURCE: WWW.ABS-CBNNEWS.COM

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