Conversion of Canadian prison sentence for Amanda Todd's extortion to a six-year Dutch prison sentence is final
The District Court's decision to convert the 13-year prison sentence imposed in Canada for the extortion of Amanda Todd to a six-year prison sentence in the Netherlands is to be upheld. That is what the Supreme Court decided today.
The case
Dutch national Aydin C. (hereinafter "C.") was arrested in 2014, as part of a Dutch criminal investigation, on suspicion of, among other things, extorting underage girls online using sexually charged webcam footage. One of his victims was Canadian national Amanda Todd. She posted a video on YouTube telling her story, shortly before taking her own life at the age of 15.
In 2020, the Netherlands extradited C. to Canada to stand trial for the extortion of Amanda Todd (on the condition that he would serve his sentence in the Netherlands). By that time, he had already been irrevocably sentenced in the Netherlands to the maximum prison term of 10 years and 243 days for the extortion of the other victims. On 14 October 2022, he was sentenced in Canada to 13 years of imprisonment. Because of treaty obligations, this Canadian sentence had to be converted to a sentence appropriate by Dutch standards upon C.'s return to the Netherlands. The District Court converted the sentence to six years' imprisonment. C. lodged an appeal in cassation with the Supreme Court against this decision.
Complaints in cassation
C.'s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to set aside the District Court's decision to convert the sentence. Complaints in cassation were directed against the District Court's ruling that Article 63 of the Dutch Criminal Code did not apply in this case. Article 63 of the Dutch Criminal Code regulates the maximum sentence that can be imposed if a person has committed multiple offences that the court could have assessed simultaneously. If that article applied in this case, C.'s attorneys said, then the Canadian sentence should have been converted to 0 days because the maximum sentence had already been imposed in the Dutch criminal case. The District Court disagreed and ruled that Article 63 of the Dutch Criminal Code did not apply to the conversion of the sentence imposed in Canada.
Opinion of the Advocate General (AG)
On 17 December 2024, the AG recommended that the Supreme Court uphold the District Court's decision.
Ruling of the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court agrees with the District Court that Article 63 of the Dutch Criminal Code indeed does not apply to conversion proceedings. Under the applicable regulations, there is no obligation in conversion proceedings to consider prior convictions in Dutch criminal proceedings for a separate offence.
The Supreme Court's ruling means that the conversion to the six-year Dutch sentence is now final.