Richard de Mos, the leader of the largest party on The Hague city council, has again been found not guilty of corruption in a case that started over 4.5 years ago.

Six other defendants in the case were also found not guilty by appeal court judges in The Hague.

The court did, however, say that De Mos and his colleague Rachid Guernaoui had breached confidentiality agreements by leaking secret council information about permits to third parties and gave De Mos a €2000 conditional fine.

Prosecutors, who had said De Mos should be jailed for six months, claimed the business leaders were rewarded with preferential treatment by De Mos in his capacity as city councillor and alderman. They also said De Mos should be banned from serving on the council for four years.

The party won eight of the 45 seats in the 2022 local elections but was excluded from the coalition talks, partly because of the corruption investigation which has been running since 2019.

De Mos and Guernaoui were appointed as aldermen, or executive officials, in the coalition that ran the council after the elections of 2018 with Groep de Mos as the largest party.

The other parties withdrew their support, forcing the two men to resign, after police raided the Groep de Mos offices and De Mos’s home in October 2019.