It has been a busy week. Both at my work but also when it comes to the news. If I would have had more time, I would have wrote a bit more about it. But for now I will just have to do with some highlights. Starting with the most recent news: yesterday Slobodan Milošević, the former president of Serbia died in his prison in The Hague. He was there waiting for his trial for his warcrimes during the Yugoslav wars. There are some parallels there with the trial against Saddam Hussein. The fact that Hussein is in a trial in his own country and Milosevic wasn’t, is a key difference. Either Saddam should have been in The Hague too, or Milosevic should have been on trial in his own country. Off course there are rumors that Milošević has been murdered and he didn’t die of natural causes.
In other news this week, the trial started against the former CEO Cees van der Hoeven and his CFO Michiel Meurs of Ahold. Both are being sued for their part in a huge financial scandal (fraud) with Ahold, the biggest supermarket in Holland. In 2003 the company lost over one third of its stock value overnight when it turned out there had been a huge fraud in the US (US Food Service) and Argentina (Disco).
Elections
On tuesday I did my duty as a Dutch citizen, by voting in the local elections for my city, Almere. On a nationwide scale the elections turned out to be a huge success for all left-wing political parties. It is clear that voters in Holland were sending a message to the current government. As always people tend to vote with their wallet and since this government has been taking a lot of impopular measures the last years, they are clearly paying a price for that now.
Hofstad Groep
Probably the most newsworthy this week (in Holland, that is) was the ruling in the notorious Hofstad group terrorism trial. The whole thing started shortly after the murder of Theo van Gogh by Mohammed Bouyeri in November 2004. The Hofstad groep gained attention from national media here in Holland when an attempt to arrest suspected members Jason Walters and Ismail Akhnikh lead to a 14 hour siege of a house in The Hague. In the months after the siege, a number of other suspected members of the organization are arrested. On December 5 2005 the Hofstad court case against 14 suspected members started and now the court convicted nine of the 14 suspects of being member of a criminal terrorist organisation. Five others were acquitted of this charge. Three members got 15, 13 and 5 years of prison.