Suspected crime boss Willem Holleeder, currently on trial for blackmail, has been admitted to hospital with what his lawyer Jan-Hein Kuijpers says are ‘serious’ complaints. Holleeder, 48, was taken to the Leiden University medical centre on Monday ‘on the advice of a prison doctor’, a spokeman for the prison service said.

The court where Holleeder is on trial on four charges of blackmail will decide today whether to delay the hearings until he is well enough to attend.
Kuijpers said at the weekend that Holleeder was ‘seriously ill’. He became unwell during Thursday’s hearings and was said to be suffering from an increased heart rate, high blood pressure and stress.
Kuijpers said Holleeder was exhausted and blamed the security regime that he was being kept under. Holleeder is woken at 3am every day to prepare for the journey to court.
The public prosecution department has asked the prison service to move Holleeder to a jail closer to Amsterdam, the Volkskrant reported on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, security around the Osdorp court complex has been further tightened up. Last week two grenades were fired at the building. No-one has yet been arrested in connection with that incident.