Aanwijzen ander gerecht

Designation of the court for criminal prosecution of judges and members of the Public Prosecution Service

During the reporting period, three requests were heard for the designation of a court for the – possible – prosecution and trial of a judge or prosecutor (Article 510 Dutch Code of Criminal Procedure).

The first request concerned a judge against whom charges of breach of official secrecy had been filed. The second request concerned charges against a deputy judge for causing a traffic accident as a driver of a passenger car.

In both cases, the Procurator General concluded by appointing another District Court for the possible prosecution and settlement of the case. In accordance with the advisory opinions (Supreme Court 1 July 2025, 25/02217; Supreme Court 8 July 2025, 25/02326), the Supreme Court designated the Amsterdam District Court and the Rotterdam District Court, respectively.

The third request concerned members of the Public Prosecution Service against whom charges had been filed by two lawyers for, among other things, breach of official secrecy. A number of public prosecutors were identified by name and position, others only as "unknown members of the public prosecutors' office". Most of the mentioned public prosecutors worked at the national public prosecutors' office, Rotterdam location. The Procurator General took the view that the circumstance that it was not (yet) possible to determine the identity of all the persons referred to in the report did not have to preclude granting of the request. According to the advisory opinion of the Procurator General, it is in accordance with the purport of Article 510 of the Dutch Code of Criminal Procedure and with the interest of efficient litigation that the report is handled by a single public prosecutors' office that is not attached to a court in respect of which the national public prosecutors' office is initiating prosecution and to which, for that matter, none of the civil servants named in the report are attached. The Supreme Court referred to the District Court of Zeeland-West Brabant in accordance with the advisory opinion (Supreme Court 4 November 2025, ECLI:NL:HR:2025:1632).