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Fred Sanders

(23,946 posts)
Fri Mar 13, 2015, 01:42 PM Mar 2015

Netherlands' justice minister resigns in drug money scandal | The Guardian | Five Days to National Elections

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/10/netherlands-justice-minister-resigns-in-drug-money-scandal

Agence France-Presse in The Hague
Tuesday 10 March 2015 04.38 GMT


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The Dutch justice minister has resigned in an ongoing scandal over a deal amounting to millions of euros that was struck by prosecutors with a famous drug trafficker 15 years ago.

“There has been uncertainty over this matter for too long,” Ivo Opstelten told journalists at a press conference in The Hague on Monday night.

“I take full responsibility, so I have just submitted my resignation to the king.”

Opstelten and secretary of state Fred Teeven submitted their resignations hours after the ministry said it had found evidence of the exact amount paid to a trafficker referred to as Cees H at the time: 4.7m Dutch guilders (€2.4m).

The deal made by Teeven – then attorney general – in 2000 saw the money, which has been seized as part of an investigation, paid back to Cees H via accounts to Luzembourg without notifying tax authorities.

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Dated information, but huge unknown impact on these elections in an economy bigger and more vital to Europe than Greece, number 11 versus 34 in the world.

The Dutch elections are a barometer of the rise or fall of Greece style socialism in Europe, and the same of right wing extremist, racist style evil.
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