New rules are needed to cover the secret tape recordings of conversations between defendants and their lawyers, a court in The Hague said on Thursday.

The case was brought by the criminal lawyers organisation NVSA which claims phone taps are being listened to by police officers and other legal officials, and that the information is being misused.
Taping conversations between lawyers and their clients is legal but the information cannot be used to influence an investigation and the recorded conversations must be destroyed.
However, the court said that the risk of this right being abused is too great. It gave the public prosecution department three months to come up with reforms.
NVSA chairwoman Annelies Röttgering told the Volkskrant that the ruling was a step forward, but that lawyers still want a total ban on police and court officials listening in on confidential conversations.