The Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court of Appeal today suspended the pre-trial detention against two of the three directors of Centurion Vastgoed. This means that they may await the hearing of their case at liberty.

The court had previously imposed long prison sentences of 3.5 and 4 years on the two gentlemen. The gentlemen also had to go to jail immediately after the Court's ruling. According to the Court, the two directors, together with a third director, defrauded more than 600 investors of a total amount of more than 26 million euros with real estate projects in Costa Rica.

The court has now granted the defense's request to release the accused. Lawyer for one of the two directors successfully argued that this is a very complex case in which it is crucial that his client be released. "Otherwise, my client's defense rights would be seriously violated. Client must be able to go into client systems, we must go together to see documents at the FIOD and there must be contact with all kinds of experts. From a House of Detention this is impossible and then client would not get a fair trial," according to Van de Bergh. The court followed him in this and released the suspects with immediate effect after more than a year of remand.