FROM MID-DECEMBER 2014 UNTIL MARCH 19, 2015, WE HAD BEEN GOING back and forth about using our preliminary statements. Now, finally, we had decided to go ahead and use them.
The plan was that on March 20, 2015, the statements would be handed to the court, the district attorney’s office, and the defense. Finally, after such a long and nerve-racking experience, the moment had arrived. We were fully prepared for that day, and then came the message that it was called off! It was an incredible blow. My nervous system couldn’t take much more.
It was rescheduled for Monday, March 23. On Wednesday, March 25, there would be a pro forma hearing, and I knew that Stijn Franken would ask for Wim’s release, a request that, I thought, had a chance of succeeding. The statements Ros had made about Wim’s involvement in the liquidations were second- or third-hand at best. If our statements were presented by March 23, they would be just in time.
In the meantime, we had informed the press based on the understanding that all parties to the trial would be familiar with our statements. The Telegraaf and NRC newspapers were going to publish our interviews on Tuesday, March 24.
But on Monday, March 23, at 12:08, I got word from Betty that the handing over of the statements was off again. The statements would be issued later.
Postponed again? I called Betty to ask for the reason. She told me it was too early, due to our safety and the measures that had to be taken. I told her that we couldn’t wait, because we had already alerted the media. She asked me to cancel the press; there could be disastrous consequences if the papers published the interviews before the preliminary statements had gone to the court, the lawyers, and the district attorney’s office.
But we had no intention of blowing off the press. We wanted our statements to go public on the agreed-upon date. The publication of the statements would increase our safety. By now an unknown number of people already knew about our role as witnesses, and the chance that Wim would find out had increased.
The DA didn’t want to jeopardize our safety, but we hadn’t been safe for a long time. Not safe from the moment we’d had our first meeting with the Justice Department, and certainly not safe during the two years we, knowing we had testified, had to go on seeing Wim.
We were totally worn out by the stress and didn’t want to spend any more time in uncertainty. We’d just have to see what would happen: on Tuesday, March 24, we would stand up to him, with or without the district attorney’s office.
I told Betty that we knew what we were doing and also knew the consequences. That was our choice, and I said to her, “I discharge you of all responsibility regarding our safety. Don’t worry. It’s our decision, and we’ll do it with or without you.”
That same day, just before five p.m., I got the message that it was a green light and that the statements were available to the court and defense. No later than tomorrow, but it could well be today, Wim would know that we’d stood up to him.
I had been imagining this moment for two years, how it would mean a turning point in my relationship with my brother. The moment he’d hear that his little sister had been trying for years to get him convicted. His little sister, to whom he had entrusted his fear of a life sentence, would now get him condemned for life herself. It still makes me cry, how it must have felt to him, like a knife straight through his heart.