The Public Prosecution Service announced on Wednesday that it had made a proposal to Lil Kleine. The rapper accepted a community service order of 32 hours and, in return, does not have to appear in court. What about these transaction proposals within the Dutch legal system?
We mainly know settlements from the American legal system, where so-called plea deals are more the rule than the exception. In the Netherlands you don’t hear much about it, but the Public Prosecution Service (OM) also settles with suspects here. The best known are the high transactions, where companies are settled for high fines.
In criminal cases in which a person is suspected of a serious crime, the suspect will have to answer to the judge. But in cases involving relatively minor criminal offenses, such as traffic violations or simple assault resulting in minor injury, the Public Prosecution Service may also make a transaction proposal to the suspect. If the suspect accepts the proposal, the case will not go to court. That is what happened with Lil Kleine.
The thirty-year-old Jorik Scholten, as Lil Kleine is called in real life, was arrested in 2022 after security camera footage surfaced. It showed him pulling his then-partner Jaimie Vaes out of his car by her hair. The images appeared to show Vaes with her head stuck between the door. The rapper denied at the time that he had hit her with the car door.
Initially, Scholten was suspected by the Public Prosecution Service of attempted aggravated assault. But after Vaes herself stated that her head had not been hit by the car door, the suspicion was reduced to assault in January 2023.
Transaction proposal is not the same as a penal order
The Public Prosecution Service considers a community service order of 32 hours “appropriate” in this case. The fact that there is no question of attempted aggravated assault but (simple) assault plays a role. In addition, the Public Prosecution Service takes into account that the incident dates back some time and that Scholten has “adhered well to the conditions, such as probation supervision” after his pre-trial detention. The negative media attention for the rapper also counts.
In practice, a transaction proposal is sometimes confused with a penal order. A penal order is a punishment that the public prosecutor himself imposes for common criminal offenses, just as a judge can (with the difference that only a judge can impose prison sentences). With a transaction proposal, prosecution, in Scholten’s case for assault, is precisely prevented.
“An important difference is that a transaction does not establish guilt,” says criminal lawyer and lecturer Marlies Loenen. “That is different from a penal order or a court conviction, in which the suspect’s guilt is established.”
Both a penal order and a transaction proposal are a way to deal with simple, common crime quickly. Not only a suspect can have an interest in this: the Public Prosecution Service and the judiciary have a limited number of people and the number of lawsuits is large. A quick settlement of cases, via the public prosecutor and therefore outside the court, leads to greater efficiency and a saving of time and costs.
Scholten will have a record on his criminal record
Because Scholten has accepted the community service order, he does not have to appear in court. The rapper was in pre-trial detention for sixteen days. These days are offset against the community service order, so that in practice he no longer has to carry it out.
In addition to performing community service, a transaction proposal may also consist of, for example, paying a fine. If the suspect chooses not to accept the proposal or does not comply with the agreement made, he must still answer to the judge.
According to Loenen, Scholten could have refused the transaction proposal. “For example, if you do not agree with the accusation or believe that there is no evidence in the criminal case. Also, if you have a major interest in a clean criminal record, it may be a consideration not to (simply) agree to a transaction proposal.”
In this case, the transaction will be recorded on Scholten’s criminal record because of the assault, which is a crime, says Loenen. “This may cause problems in obtaining a Certificate of Good Conduct and sometimes limit the possibility of traveling to certain countries.”