Court verdicts continue to be riddled with illegally and wrongly “corrected” names, causing innocent people to go to prison and others to evade punishment, whistleblowers at the judicial information service Justid told the Telegraaf.
Justid is in charge of collecting, managing and linking confidential information about identity, records, residence status and detention information. The service also manages the identity database SKDB.
Justid workers often change names by hand if they spot what they think is a mistake, the whistleblowers said. According to one anonymous worker, “a name pops up and you check: is he in the system? You think: it must be him”.
Changing names, incorrectly or not at all, can have serious consequences, the audit office concluded last year, lumbering innocent people with a conviction while others evade punishment.
Last year, the audit office said Justid found 876 mistaken identities in verdicts, 141 of which were linked to serious crimes such as murder and manslaughter, terrorism and crimes related to drugs and sexual assault.
“This is the tip of the iceberg,” whistleblower Marleen de Wilde told the Telegraaf. One of her colleagues, who wished to remain anonymous, said the number could be as high as 50,000.
“Many cases don’t see the light of day,” De Wilde said. “Convicted criminals who never go to prison will keep quiet, of course.
“But if you are innocent, you will only find out when your name comes up in connection with something else,” she said, for instance, when requesting a certificate of good conduct (VOG).
De Wilde said one reason the problem is allowed to continue is “a culture of fear” at Justid, which is stopping workers from flagging up mistakes.
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