Wieger Veldhuis, Public Prosecutor for International Crimes, Public Prosecution Service of The Netherlands, speaks with Wayamo’s Mark Kersten about the advantages of prosecuting terrorist acts for both core international crimes and terrorism-related offences. Among the benefits of doing so is that it makes both cases – for terrorism charges and international crimes – stronger, captures the full scale of criminality, and delegitimizes the violence of perpetrators. Veldhuis also notes that victims can benefit from the full range of crimes being prosecuted when terrorism and international crimes prosecutions are linked, as opposed to when perpetrators are prosecuted, for example, only for their membership in a terrorist organization. In his own work in The Netherlands, Veldhuis has not felt any political pressure as to what crimes to charge, but he knows that prosecuting only terrorist acts are often more desirable for states, as a means to attack their enemies. Veldhuis concludes by stressing that learning from each other and from other people working on different kinds of cases, accountability for atrocities and terrorist crimes can be furthered in meaningful, and tangible ways.
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