People who potentially pose a threat to national security should be locked up, even if there is little evidence against them, according to PVV leader Geert Wilders, the Telegraaf said on Tuesday.

Wilders is planning to publish a private members’ bill on Tuesday which will make it possible for officials to detain potentially dangerous people without trial, the paper said.

The bill would give the security service AIVD the power to pick people off the streets and put them in jail, if the home affairs ministry gives permission. The courts would then have one week to make sure the arrest was carried out in line with procedures, but would not be able to examine the evidence against the suspect.

‘It is as if we are remembering the victims of attacks in Europe on a weekly basis,’ Wilders said. ‘We nearly always hear that the perpetrators were known to the security services. I want the AIVD to be able to intervene as a precaution.’

By locking people up, the AIVD would also be able to use its limited resources elsewhere, Wilders said.

Parliament is due to debate measures to combat terrorism on Tuesday evening.

Rule of law

Eduard Nazarski, the director of Amnesty International Nederland, described Wilders’ proposal as a ‘frontal attack on the rule of law’.

‘We will not let our freedoms be taken away,’ he told broadcaster NOS. ‘Not by terrorists who want to destroy our society with violence and not by politicians who want to limit our rights.’