Thijs H., suspected of three murders, must appear Friday (27) at the first hearing of his trial. The Limburg District Court required him to do so Wednesday.

This was done at the request of the prosecution. The court had initially agreed that H. did not have to come to the courthouse in Maastricht. This to the dissatisfaction of the prosecution. ''There has been a shaken legal order. It is a case with an enormous social impact," explains a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office.

That is why the Justice Department filed the request this week to still require H. to show up. The court agreed to that on Wednesday by issuing a so-called "order to abet.

H.'s lawyer Serge Weening is not pleased with the course of events and the publicity about it and plans to express the same during the hearing. ,,A month and a half ago I asked the president of the court if it was necessary for my client to appear. In my opinion, there is no added value. The court agreed that Thijs H. did not have to appear, but is now coming back to that after a request from the public prosecutor. No order was needed for that, H. would have simply appeared if the court had requested it."

Ask questions

According to a court spokeswoman, the judges wanted Thijs H. to still appear so that they could ask him questions about an interim statement. Initially, the choice of whether he wanted to appear would have been left to the accused himself. Which statement is involved, the court was unable to say at the end of the afternoon yesterday. The prosecution and Weening say they do not know.

Thijs H. is suspected of having stabbed three people to death in early May, one in The Hague and two on Brunssummer Heath. He denies this himself.

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