Kickboxing organisers to be vetted for criminal connections

The organisers of kickboxing contests and other fighting events are to be vetted for criminal connections before they can get a licence, junior justice minister Fred Teeven has told Amsterdam’s mayor.


Mayor Eberhard van der Laan had raised concerns about such fights, after a police investigation suggested they are ‘networking events for organised crime’.
For example, police said six of the 10 VIPs attending a kickboxing match in the capital several weeks ago had ‘criminal connections’.
Now Teeven wants to subject fight events to special legislation known as the Bibob law. The Wet Bevordering Integriteitsbeoordeling door het Openbaar Bestuur came into force in 2003.
The legislation allows local authorities to check the backgrounds of people in the sex industry, such as brothel owners, and soft-drugs trade. It also now covers the construction industry, firework importers and fruit machine operators.

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