"One of the country's most notorious human traffickers" in the Netherlands, Saban Baran, "born in Turkey", "fled while on a temporarily release from prison", and "there are fears he has fled there".
"Baran, 38, was convicted last year of leading a gang notorious for forcing more than 100 women into prostitution, tattooing some of them to mark them as the gang's property. Prosecutors also say some women who came from Germany and eastern Europe were forced to have breast implants and illegal abortions while working in brothels in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities", according to AP.
- "We are talking here about a terrible blunder in the law," said Fred Teeven, a former senior prosecutor who is now a lawmaker for the center-right Liberal Party...
"A court's decision last week to allow Saban Baran out of his cell for a week ... has caused outrage. Facing public criticism, judges at Arnhem Appeals Court took the unusual step of explaining why they released one of the country's most notorious criminals. Prosecutors initially had agreed to let Baran out for two days but judges in Arnhem extended the leave to seven days. Prosecutors later appealed for his release to be canceled, saying they had received "concrete signals" he might flee. But appellate judges refused to order Baran back to his cell, saying it was not clear he had breached any conditions of his release. Only after he disappeared did judges revoke his release"
"Teeven said he was surprised prosecutors agreed to a brief release in the first place.
"You wonder why, when police and prosecutors expended so much energy putting this man behind bars," he told NOS radio.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/09/17/dutch_police_hunt_fugitive_human_trafficker/
