Drugs defendants freed due to evidence fraud

Thursday 28 January 2010

Eight people charged with serious drug offences have been released by judges in Breda because police manipulated the evidence of one defendant.

It is the fourth time in six months that mistakes by the public prosecution department have led to a major trial collapsing, the Volkskrant reports on Thursday.

Members of the gang had been charged with smuggling thousands of kilos of drugs to Britain following a two-year investigation.

The court ruled that written evidence from one defendant had been subjected to so much 'copy and paste' work that ' there was little left of the original statement'. Two police officers denied under oath manipulating the statement.

However, the judges said the statement had become so 'infected' that a fair trial for all eight had become impossible and dismissed the charges.

© DutchNews.nl

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