Journalist’s home search okayed by court

The AIVD security service was within its rights to search for possible state secrets at the home of a Telegraaf journalist, Haarlem district court ruled on Thursday.


An AIVD official first asked Jolande van der Graaf to return its secret papers and when she refused, her property was searched, news agency ANP said.
The journalist ‘should not have had state secrets,’ the judge in Haarlem said. ‘It was of great importance that the documents were returned to the AIVD.’
The documents were given to Van der Graaf by an AIVD official and her partner.
The court also ruled that all documents which were not state secrets should be returned unread to the Telegraaf journalist. Police seized notebooks and digital records during their search of her home.
Later on Thursday afternoon, Amsterdam district court is due to rule on whether the AIVD should stop tapping Van der Graaf and other Telegraaf journalists’ phones.

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