When it is good to be bad
In the Netherlands, you can go scot-free if you are a terrorist, but not really good at what you do.
Check out this interesting piece from Expatica:
Back in 2003 A. was a schoolboy with a burning ambition. He set off with a friend for Chechnya to fight for the Jihad against the Russian occupiers. Showing more enthusiasm than forward planning the two guys left in January without heavy clothing or passports.Russian border guards sent them back to the Netherlands.
Prosecutors were convinced the sketches of Schiphol Airport, the Dutch Parliament, the headquarters of the security service AIVD and the nuclear power plant in Borssele proved A. was plotting terrorist attacks.
The trial court didn’t agree with the prosecution.
..A.’s plans were so “inept and clumsy” he couldn’t have made good on his intentions to carry out attacks.
Imagine that Mohamed Atta al-Sayed and his 19 associates were arrested before they boarded the planes on September 11. Would they have been acquitted by a US court because only amateur terrorists would attempt to hijack a plane armed with Box-cutter knives?
Apparently, judges don’t just evaluate whether you had intended to do the crime, but also whether you were “good” enough to carry out the crime.
