The Registrar
European Court of Human Rights
Council of Europe
F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex

Subject: Complaint concerning the Netherlands


February 21, 2007




Dear Judges and Members of the Court, Ladies and Gentlemen, Madam, Sir
To all it may concern




On the second of December 2004 (02-12-04) at 17.30 hours in the early evening I sat on my couch in my house, alone, watching TV I think, with some dinner on a plate beside me. Breastfeeding my first and newborn baby JL, holding her in my arms while she lay resting on a breastfeeding cushion; she was a few days old. I just returned from doing groceries in the small village’s supermarket, the groceries were still in the trunk off my car because my baby was hungry and I wanted to breastfeed here immediately. I saw blue police car lights in my garden. I wondered why and thought there was something going on with my neighbors. But policemen were talking in my garden for some time I could here some mumbling I walked once or twice to the window but I couldn’t see anything, still with my baby suckling my breast and then after some minutes (5 or 10 minutes) they banged on my front door. There were multiple policemen and cars. They were shouting that I had to open the door and banging on it. I was tired and didn’t understand what they wanted and asked them to come back tomorrow because I was breastfeeding my hungry baby, I was still recuperating from the delivery. Then they started talking to more people in my garden whom I couldn’t see. They said that they had a warrant that I had to open the door. I asked them what warrant. But they refused to answer and kept banging the door and shouting. I became alarmed. After some more whispering with people in the garden they flashed a peace of paper and started shouting and banging the door again. I said I couldn’t see or read what the paper was about. They deliberated some more with the for me invisible people in the garden and showed it once more for more than one second I could just read something like that it was a warrant to open the door I couldn’t read anymore because they pulled the paper away again very quickly. I called a neighbor on the phone for help and advice what to do. I said, “They are going to take away my baby”. Because this neighbor told me during my pregnancy that my baby was going to be taken away from me after birth, but my gynecologist, whom I have told this to, and I, didn’t believe her. She said, “Oh should I come over?” I said no. I didn’t know what to do. I was alone there were a dozen or so policemen shouting and banging and intimidating me. I opened the door. About 15 people stormed into my house. They took my baby out of my arms.
I have never seen her again for the rest of my life.
I was arrested by the police and locked up in an institute for the mentally insane in an isolation cell. The psychiatrist told the judge that someone had called them and said that I was suicidal. That I had a mentally ill brother who killed himself after being locked up for years in an institution for the mentally insane. I told them that I never had a brother. The judge, the only judge who ever talked to me directly and in person, demanded an investigation what had happened to me and where my baby was and an investigation into the government agency. And he wanted to know who had done this and who helped those people to pull this off. All the people that I know should be talked to. This never happened. The judge said that there was nothing wrong with me. The psychiatrist however said that I looked, talked and behaved normal, but that I was not normal. I also had a high IQ and I worked as a psychiatrist myself therefore I knew all the right answers to convince everybody that nothing was wrong with me. He said that if I committed suicide, nobody could help me because there was no proper road to my house. The judge finally complied because he told me that in case of doubt he had to decide to lock me up. Another psychiatrist told me that I was to be reunited within 2 weeks with my baby at a psychiatric ward in a hospital. Three days later she said that the government called this of and that I had to be committed to an institute for the mentally insane mothers, which belonged to the government. There they wanted to make videos of my baby and me. After 10 days they let me go. Because the psychiatrist said that I was “a completely normal mother with a perfectly healthy baby”. I was never committed to this other psychiatric facility of the government because my lawyer found out that I was not to be reunited with my baby. The government wanted me to be locked up in another institute voluntarily without intervention of a judge and refuse to put in writing that I would be reunited with my baby. I had to sign a piece of paper that I voluntarily let myself be committed for an indefinite period of time for purposes of gathering information about my insanity and my intentions to kill my baby and that I would only see my baby for the making of videos films once a week for one hour. I refuse to sign this following the advice of my lawyer. I was not supposed to help the government to make their case after the fact and in doing so possibly incriminating myself in return for my baby.
The investigation ordered by the judge never took place because I was released; therefore there was no need for any further investigation. I called the judge that my baby was still missing and he said that he could not help me anymore and that I should find a good lawyer to assist me finding my baby.
After my release the police arrested me again, and again and again because of allegations from all kinds of people who called them to have me arrested, which they did. I stayed in police cells for 3 up to 10 days each time. One day my cats were poisoned when I came home. One of them died despite of weeks of hospitalization and veterinary care. They lived with me for 16 years. The police told me that my neighbor didn’t want me to live in my house. The neighbors used a digging machine to make a ditch around my house where there was a road on one side. As a result of this I couldn’t reach my house beside by jumping over the ditch filled with water. The first night I fell into the water because I didn’t know that they removed the road. I called the police who refused to help me. The neighbors told me that the police had advised them to do so to prevent me from living in my house. The police denied this. They laid rocks on the other side of the road making it impossible to drive over it with my car. Finally I was put in jail because I was a danger to other people and not insane anymore. I was however locked up at the section for the criminally insane because they said I was suicidal (still or again, I don’t know). Therefore there were cameras and the light was on for 24 hours to watch me, as they did in the isolation cell in the mental institution. I was released after some months under the condition that I was never to return to my house. They took away my house because they said I was a threat to the neighbor. I wandered the streets and lived some time in my car until it broke down.
I was alone and helpless and crying and shouting for my baby.
I have never seen her again.
The first trial, two weeks after her abduction, took 2 minutes and 40 seconds. The judges said that they had to make 300 decisions in one day and that they didn’t had more time. Therefore they decided to investigate for the next 3 months. Because the government said that they believed in the competence of the physician who signed the warrant. This was on the sixteenth of December 2004. On the eighteenth the government came to my house to apologize for the abduction and said that my baby would be returned to me within seventy-two hours. She never came home. I have never heard or seen the government ever since. I have called them every day where my baby was but nobody spoke to me or returned my calls.
The next trial was 3 months later. Because nothing had happened the judge decided to have a next trial in 6 months and ordered again to investigate. Nothing happened. After that they decided to investigate for 12 months. Nothing happened. Then for another 12 months, nothing happened. And it goes on and on like this. They are supposing to investigating now for 3 years all that time I am not allowed to see my baby. Nobody knows were she is. They told me that she is in hiding because I would kill her otherwise. I have never seen or heard from anyone since they apologized to me 3 years ago.
I lost all the trials on the basis of stories people told about me. I was supposed to be insane and my baby was abused and I was going to kill her they said. Therefore I was not allowed to see my baby.
The judges believed all these stories told by the government who said, the first two years, that all the information came from physicians. They said that I was a bad mother, because I worked as a medical physician and didn’t want to stay at home after maternity leave and resume my work and wanted to put my baby in a daycare centre. Only bad mothers did that. Good mothers don’t work and put their babies in a daycare centre. I was a bad mother because I didn’t want to end my career. I am 43 years old and work for more than 15 years as a physician. It was clear to the judge that I hated my baby and wished her dead or never born. Because the government said that I wanted to abort her during pregnancy. And the judge said that I choose for my career and not for my baby.
Also I was breastfeeding her and that was child abuse because bottle milk was superior. My baby was malnourished because of my poor quality of breast milk and the fact that I did not have money for bottle milk. People from the government told this to the judges and said that this information came from medical physicians whom I have never seen or heard of. They didn’t examine my baby and me but got telephone calls from other people. The physicians also said that the recommendations of the WHO only applied to black people because they only had studied people in Africa and therefore the recommendations of the WHO concerning breastfeeding did not apply to white people. For babies of white people’s bottle milk was the best.
They also said that I didn’t eat and was loosing weight. My gynecologist examined me after the abduction and told me that I was in excellent shape and that I could go bungee jumping because of my top condition.
Another reason for taking away my baby was, that I am a single mother. I did not have a husband who should be the head of the family and caretaker and provider. Homosexuality was never discussed as a possibility. The judges only talked about heterosexual relationships and families as such. My home was therefore not a “harmonious family situation”. The judges asked me if I already had a husband. When I told them that I stayed in a house with a male person (I was homeless since the judge took away my house) they rejected that because I knew this person only 6 weeks.
They said that I was not a medical physician and that I had no knowledge what so ever about raising and taking care of babies.
I lived in a rural area on a farm this was not allowed, I had to live in a city.
I did not have contact with my neighbors, which was essential because a single working mother could not raise a child by her own. A psychiatrist admitted this.
The appeal court on the other hand wanted me to work and find a job, but they agreed also that I must have a husband and they wanted me to go back to an institute for the mentally insane voluntarily, to which I and other psychiatrists refused to comply.
I also refused to get involved with a man or start a relationship. Although I considered it and tried to comply. But the men were not interested in my baby and wanted me to give her up.
I also refused to on one hand end my career as ordered and on the other hand start a new job in return for my baby. I tried to find a job and started working again for some time as ordered by the appeal court.
At last I did not understand what to do, stop working or start working every time they decided something else.
The judges one time pulled their hair in despair and shouted, “what must we do with this case!”
The judges wanted to know why I have never seen my baby again. One of the explanations beside that it was all my fault was that the government said that they didn’t have my telephone number to make an appointment. My lawyer said that my telephone number was the same as the government had from the day of the abduction and had never changed in all these years.
They had told me for some forty times the first year that I could see my baby but they canceled all the appointments for several reasons. In the first year it was because I could only see my baby if I let myself be locked up again. But even when I was locked up in those ten days they called of all the appointments. For instance because the name of a nurse was incorrect, or because they didn’t have a car, or because the number of the room was wrong, or they had no personnel etc. After one year they stopped demanding that I should be locked up. This was not necessary anymore. They demanded however that I stopped calling them to see my baby. The judge complied because he said that he didn’t understand why I was calling everyday what the purpose was and that I had to stop calling because the secretaries of the government agency didn’t liked it and said that they felt threatened by all my calls to see my baby. The government has never called me. After the second year the judge asked again why I haven’t seen my baby and demanded that I should see my baby. The government blamed another government organization for this. Therefore the judge appointed another government agency but they refused. They blamed me for this in the next trial six months later. In that trial they finally admitted that the mother and the baby were innocent and that there was nothing wrong with us. They also said that all babies from 2 years up to four years old should never be returned to their mothers because this would be harmful for the development of the baby. This was only possible for the first two years but since I have never seen my baby it was now too late because she would turn 2 years old in 2 months time. She was 22 months old at that time. The judge accepted this explanation and prolonged the separation of mother and baby for another 2 years.
Another judge said that she wanted the baby to be returned to the mother as soon as possible. The government refused and started asking for psychiatric rapports again after two years.
The mother and baby are innocent but the government will not bow. They said that I had to stop the lawsuits otherwise I will never see my baby again. And the fact that I was not given up was prove that I did not love my baby otherwise I would quit and give in.
They said that if I returned to a clinic for the mentally insane I would get my baby back. But they refused to put that in writing.
The judges have numerous medical files that my baby and I are mentally and physically perfectly healthy. But all the medical files were rejected because the judge asked the government what they had to do with all the medical evidence and the government advised the judge to ignore them so they did. They also wrote that access to my medical files was denied to protect involved third parties.
The quality of my breast milk was examined in a laboratory and that was fine. There was nothing wrong with my milk.
They found out that the financial problems also did not exist at that time.
I did not have any legal council or lawyers to help me. I started calling everybody and everywhere for help. The majority of the lawyers refused to help me or backed out at the last moment and didn’t appeal although they said they would. They were helping the offenders and prosecutors instead of me. They agreed that a husband was of the utmost importance and started involving the procreator into the situation. They called each other without my knowledge not to help me. They refused to plea in court on my behalf and said nothing. They withheld medical files and other information. They said that I was a liar and insane, and that they too would advise the judge to put me in an institute for the mentally insane and sent me away to find another lawyer. They said that I couldn’t prosecute the state, the policemen, the judges, the government, their agencies or the district attorneys. There was nothing I could do legally or otherwise. The Supreme Court in The Hague refused to study the case and rejected my appeal. Lawyers already told me that nobody stands a change towards the government in these cases and that going to the Supreme Court is useless. They were right. The Supreme Court said that de decisions are always 3 or 6 or 12 months and that therefore the verdict doesn’t exist anymore by the time you go to the Supreme Court because by that time there is a new verdict for yet another year and the old verdict is discarded. Therefore they never take these cases, because they cannot rule within a year, they need more time and by that time the verdict doesn’t exist anymore. And they don’t rule about verdicts in the past that are substituted by another verdict although the verdict and the allegations are exactly the same and nothing has changed. The lawyers also told me that I don’t have a case for your court and refuse to help me.
Everybody tried to stop me from prosecuting and to go on with my life. They said you fought like a lion for your child but you will never win. I didn’t give up. I refuse to forget my baby girl. I know she must be alive somewhere. I know I was pregnant. I know I gave birth. I know she exists. Somewhere. I went on all by myself. Nobody supports me or helps me. At this moment I have a lawyer who goes to the judge once a year to convince her that I am innocent and to give back my baby. She refuses.
My mother called me one day and told me that the government agency had said to her on the phone that there was no solution in this case, that I would never see my baby again, and that they were waiting for me to take my own live. They were convinced that I would commit suicide eventually and that I wasn’t going to make it. I called my lawyer who admitted that the government was right and that she agreed that my death was the only solution, she didn’t see any other alternative.
Journalists did not believe me either and couldn’t get any information from lawyers, medical physicians or judges. One judge claimed amnesia. At a certain point after some articles in the newspaper the judges forbid publication in the media about this case after the government agencies demanded this. The judge complied. The journalists ignored the ruling of the judge without any consequences.
The judges and the government now say that it was all a mistake. The baby should never have been abducted and should have been given back to the mother straight away. Everybody is blaming one another and refuses to take responsibility. And the judges blame me, because the government says that everything is my fault. And the judges listen to the government agencies.
But I do not get my baby back because that would not be in the baby’s best interest because she does not know the mother because they weren’t allowed to see each other for years. And this is my entire fault. I am to blame for everything that has happened to my baby and me. The judges agree. After some more years the baby could be returned to the mother but the government says that I have never loved my baby. Now the judges want me to prove that I love my baby and they want me to prove that I have the skills to raise a child. If I can’t comply they are considering handing over my baby with the procreator. He told me that he arranged with his ex-wife that he would give my baby to her. She has accepted that proposal.
A newly appointed judge said last year that she wanted an investigation how I am doing now because she said we know that the mother and the baby were all right two years ago but that is two years ago. Now the mother is homeless and financially bankrupt, confused, afraid and can’t work anymore. The judge wants to know if I am still able after all the ordeals of taking care of my baby and myself at this moment. The investigation was supposed to be started 8 months ago, nothing happened.
The trials go on for another 9 years (each year 1 trial to inform after the baby). In total 12 years. I am allowed to be present but not allowed to say anything. After these 12 years they said that they will asked my baby what she thinks of me as her mother because she can than decide that she wants to live with me. But she has never seen me nor I her.
The medical physicians and nurses were acquitted and rewarded with compliments from the judges because they saved the life of my baby because it was proven that I was going to become insane and kill my baby in the future. This has been giving as the reason and explanation for the fact that my baby and I were in perfect mental and physical health at the time of the abduction. The government says that indeed nothing was the matter because they acted so quickly soon after her birth before anything could happen in the future. The government said to the appeal court that they were allowed by law to perform “preventive abductions” of healthy babies and children. The judges accepted that explanation, although the lawyer said that this was not true and that it was only allowed if they had any evidence prior to these “preventive abductions”. The physicians admitted to the judges that they have never seen or examined my baby and I prior to the abduction and that all the information came from the neighbor and that it was only after the abduction that the first medical and laboratory examination took place in the hospital and the institute for the insane. The conclusion that we were in perfect health was reported immediately to the government agency. But they told the physician who put his signature under the warrant that it was now too late that the baby never would be returned to the mother and that he should never had signed in the first place.
The neighbor told the judge that she only wanted me to leave my house and move elsewhere, like she threatened the previous owner of my house, who warned me to be careful with this woman, and that she had nothing to do with the abduction of my baby. She was acquitted.
The procreator, a man I saw a few times 4 years ago said to the government that he wanted to help therefore he assisted them to put me away in an institute for the insane. He had me arrested after my release because of calling him on the phone for help. He got the custody of my baby with the help of the government. They said that if I gave the custody to this man I could in turn see my baby. The government wanted him to become custodian and spokesman for me because I was insane and dangerous to my baby. He can see my baby whenever he wants and the judge maybe wants to give my baby to him in a couple of years. I have not seen this man after those few encounters 4 years ago, because he put a restraining order on me. The judge acquitted him of any wrongdoing.
I know that I have to give clear details. I started accordingly but it is too much and to traumatizing to bring back all the memories. I tried.

Please help my baby and me.


I know that you are very busy with all the applications and that people’s lives are in danger as we speak. But every day my baby develops further and bonding between us will be distorted for the rest of our lives. Needless to say that in this case, time is of the utmost importance.


Yours sincerely,


Miss **** ****, mother of **** **** ,

Dutch citizen and medical physician by profession, unemployed since maternity leave