Justice minister Ivo Opstelten should abandon his plan to introduce minimum sentences for serious crimes, judges said on Friday.

In a briefing to the minister, the national council for the judiciary says the proposal may lead to judges imposing sentences that do not bear any relationship to the seriousness of the crime.
In addition judges have to be able to take all circumstances into account when sentencing.
The organisation says the plan will not make the Netherlands safer but will cost more.
And, the judges point out, the Netherlands already has one of the toughest sentencing regimes in Europe.
EU figures last month showed that minors account for 4.7% of the Dutch prison population, by far the highest rate in Europe, apart from Malta (6.1%),
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