THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – Prosecutors asked a Dutch court on Thursday to dismiss the case against a 68-year-old father accused of isolating and abusing his own children, who had been held for years in a remote place from the outside world. fall. farm.
The case drew worldwide attention in 2019 when police discovered the father with six of his children in a hidden room on the farm in the east of the Netherlands after a son raised the alarm.
During a preliminary hearing last January, prosecutors portrayed the father as a deeply religious man who saw his family as ‘chosen of God’ and did everything in his power – including physical beatings and other punishments – to avoid succumbing to what he considered as malicious outside influences.
Prosecutors now say that the man, identified only as Gerrit Jan van D. under Dutch privacy rules, was largely disabled due to a stroke in 2016. Continuing the case would be a violation of his right to a fair trial, as he did not consider himself can defend, prosecutors said.
While asking judges to stop the case, prosecutors said their efforts and those of the police had served a useful purpose in liberating the family.
“We got the younger children out of a then unsafe, bizarre situation. And in the course of the research we gave them something they did not have before: an actual existence in our society through their registration in the personal register, but more importantly: freedom of choice. ”
The six children kept on the farm are now all young adults. Three older siblings had previously left the isolated life of the family. Their mother died in 2004.
Prosecutors acknowledged their decision would be difficult for the children who escaped isolation and told investigators “about terrible things they endured.”
Prosecutors said that while the case against the father is over, all children are now free to choose their own future, even if it means returning to isolation with their sick father.
“In the last year and a half, the children have come to know our society, have been able to participate in it and have received mental and medical care,” they said. “If, now that they have been able to taste the alternative, they choose to live in seclusion with their father again, to exercise their faith … that is their choice.”