Frenkie P., the leader of the Venlo Gang sentenced to life in prison, will not be released. The Venlo man, who has been in prison for more than a quarter century, failed an initial test for release on humanitarian grounds.
His lawyer Sjanneke de Crom confirmed that the Advisory Committee on Life Imprisonment (ACL) had ruled negatively on P. (46). He allegedly gave the board "no confidence that things will go well, given his personality and the risk of recidivism.
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Since 2017, the ACL has routinely examined whether life sentences can begin preparing for a life of freedom after 25 years. A pardon would be possible after two years. The board advises Minister Sander Dekker of Legal Protection. The latter has the last word, but must accept a negative advice. The ACL verdict does not mean that there is no more perspective for P. to ever be released. The college continues to monitor him periodically.
On May 8, 1994, the then just 21-year-old Frenkie P. was arrested. Two years later he was sentenced to life in prison for the manslaughter of Jeu Wissink of Reuver, the elderly couple Van Rijn of Venlo and the murder of four unidentified men in Venlo.
Inhuman
European judges ruled in 2013 that incarceration without any prospect of release is inhumane. When Dutch judges subsequently shunned that ultimate punishment, politicians adjusted policy and instituted the ACL in 2016.
Frenkie P. is, to our knowledge, the third detainee on whom the college has advised since 2017. One opinion was positive, the second partially positive (did reintegration activities, not yet probation). Frenkie P. was the first to receive a negative assessment. He could otherwise, in the most favorable case for him, have been released permanently on May 8, 2021. That prospect is now off the table.
