Dutch justice minister resigns over controversial payment to drug dealer
Xinhua, March 10, 2015 Adjust font size:
Dutch Minister of Security and Justice, Ivo Opstelten, and his secretary general, Fred Teeven, resigned on Monday evening following revelations about a deal with convicted drug criminals in 2001.
A press conference is underway at the Ministry of Justice and Security.
Dutch television revealed last week that Fred Teeven had wrongly struck a deal with a convicted drugs dealer 15 years ago when he was public prosecutor. He had agreed to pay back 4.7 million guilders to drug criminal Cees H. though he had not been given official permission to do so.
Teeven informed the parliament that the payment was no more than two million guilders. Opstelten told the parliament last year that it was an amount of 1.25 million U.S. dollars.
The deal had been kept secret from the tax authorities and the money was paid back to H via Luxemburg bank accounts, effectively laundering the money, reported the Dutch television. Endit