SP Member of Parliament Van Nispen in motion: 'Withdraw appeal in adoption cases'

SP Member of Parliament Michiel van Nispen has tabled a motion in which he calls on Minister Franc Weerwind (Legal Protection) to refrain from appealing in the case of the illegal adoption of Patrick Noordoven and the adoption of Dilani Butink. Van Nispen also filed a motion to reimburse costs incurred by the adoptees as a result of the State's decision to continue litigation.

Van Nispen previously addressed the minister in response to an episode of Het Onderzoeksbureau . In it, children's and human rights organizations also called for the appeal to be withdrawn. In the WNL podcast, Noordoven tells how he won his lawsuit against the State at the end of 2021, which then decided to appeal.

Patrick was taken from Brazil in 1980 with the help of a Dutch diplomat by a Dutch couple. Because his legal parents had registered him as their own child, information about his biological parents was missing. Patrick, like 41 other children, turned out to be illegally adopted from Brazil. Dutch diplomats were also involved in those adoptions.

Butink was adopted from Sri Lanka in 1992 and could not find out who her biological parents are due to abuses. It is not the first time that the State has challenged a judge's verdict: the same thing happened in the case of Patrick Noordoven in February 2022.

Stress and high costs

Van Nispen therefore asks Weerwind not only to waive the appeal in the Patrick Noordoven and Dilani Butink case, but also any other cases. According to the Member of Parliament, the appeal ensures that “the book cannot be closed” for the adoptees. According to him, they also experience stress and incur “high costs”.

Van Nispen finds it "extremely bitter that the State has already incurred 270,000 euros in costs for the State Attorney in the case against Butink and 170,000 euros in the case against Noordoven, but the parties involved have not yet received anything because the State does not accept the opinion of the judge”.

Het Onderzoeksbureau is a podcast by Omroep WNL, in which journalist Sandra van den Heuvel dives into a world of crime or abuse every two weeks. The episode about the Investigation Bureau on illegal adoptions can be listened to via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or other podcast apps .

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