Justice deleted liaison officer in Brussels

That position must ensure that information on judicial and police matters in foreign exchange as well as possible with the Netherlands.

That the post of liaison officer was not completed in Brussels, is remarkable in the light of the central role that Belgium plays as a country of origin of extremist Muslims.

After the attack on the editor of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo Belgium already was in focus as the country where the weapons came from above. An attack was perpetrated in Brussels in May 2014 at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, in which four people were killed.And in an anti-terrorist action by the Belgian police in January 2015 in Verviers, two suspected Islamic extremists killed. On the same day were also raided in the municipalities of Zaventem and Schaerbeek.

runs smoothly

According to the Ministry of V & J was decided no longer to fill the post in Brussels, since the former liaison had ensured that went lubricated contacts between the Netherlands and Belgium. Therefore, it was considered justified not longer occupy the post.

More or less simultaneously with the (temporary) removal of the liaison in Brussels decided just have to fill in again the post of liaison officer in London. At the station in London, theformer Director of Information appointed by the Ministry of Security and Justice.

chairmanship

Reason for the reopening was according to a spokesman of the ministry "Dutch presidency of the European Union in conjunction with the important role of the UK in the EU". It happens regularly, according to the ministry spokesman that the liaison function here and now consider it and then not be completed, depending on international developments.

D66 has asked parliamentary questions to clarify the disappearance of the liaison officer in Brussels. The party wants to know if it is true that other European countries have just increased their capacity to such posts in Belgium.

The CDA wants clarification. "It can not be that everything depends on one doll," said MP Van Toorenburg on NPO Radio 1.

JHA liaison (JHA stands for Justice and Home Affairs) is the representative of the Ministry of Security and Justice abroad. The Netherlands has many embassies stationed around the world JHA liaisons, as there are a lot of defense and agricultural attachés. They work from the embassy in the host country but not under the hierarchy of State, since they are sent on behalf of Security and Justice, or Defence or Agriculture.

http://nos.nl/ editorial NOS Photo: Reuters