Former journalist Micha Kat will be tried on Tuesday for sedition and threats and will probably hear a hefty prison sentence as a demand. Yet it could also just be that after his release a compensation of many tons is ready for him – from the Dutch State.
The court in Den Bosch decided last week that the Dutch State must compensate Kat for the damage suffered after a procedure that a now retired judge, Hans Westenberg, once conducted against him.
Westenberg filed a case against Kat more than fifteen years ago. It was about a book that Kat had written about Chipshol, the ‘new city’ that was supposed to arise at Schiphol – but never got off the ground. In 2004 Kat wrote a few pieces about a dubious course of events during one of the lawsuits surrounding Chipshol, and then a book. Kat described, among other things, that Westenberg had been in contact with lawyers against the rules. It later turned out that Westenberg had lied about that.
Westenberg’s lawsuit against Kat, among others, was funded by the State. Kat didn’t accept that; he demanded compensation from the State. Kat thought it was incorrect that the State paid for Westenberg’s proceedings. And now, after many years, he has been proved right.
The State’s reason for funding Westenberg’s proceedings against the journalist was the general interest in the integrity of the judiciary, and Westenberg’s as a judge in particular. Whether that decisive argument was also leading in the decision to appeal and whether to pay for it, has not become clear to the court, the Den Bosch Court of Appeal said in last week’s judgment.
‘Expert says: 1.5 million’
It is still unclear how much compensation Kat will receive. “In these proceedings, it was mainly about establishing the liability of the State, and we succeeded,” says Kats lawyer Thijs Stapel. “The amount of compensation must be determined in a so-called damage assessment procedure, which may take some time. I would like to join that case with the case against Westenberg, in which more or less the same judgment was given about Westenberg’s liability towards Kat and in which reference is also made to the damage assessment procedure. According to the calculation of an expert, we are talking about about 1.5 million euros. I will start that procedure soon, but do not expect a judgment to be handed down this year.”
Kat was once a valued journalist, but partly due to the Chipshol case he became increasingly suspicious and fell into all kinds of conspiracy theories. In recent years he has raged about corona, among other things, but especially he regularly spoke about paedo networks, collaborations of more or less well-known people who allegedly abuse children. In addition, he did not shy away from naming names, without any form of evidence. As a result, several people were threatened and had to be protected. Kat was already convicted several times and fled to Northern Ireland, where he was arrested and extradited to the Netherlands. He has now been incarcerated for a year and a half.
During the hearings in Northern Ireland regarding his extradition and during pro forma hearings in the Netherlands, he raged quite a bit. Tuesday is finally the substantive hearing of his case. He runs the risk of remaining behind bars for several years.
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