Breaking news
By: Randy Knol, the father of Ximena who died at the age of 19 from ingesting a suicide powder. Randy is the founder and chairman of the Netherlands Ximena’s Butterfly Foundation.
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| Jos van Wijk |
The Chairman of a Dutch organisation that advocates for assisted suicide was arrested on alleged criminal acts.
The Dutch police arrested the chairman of The Final Wish Cooperative (FWC) in Apeldoorn Netherlands, on suspicion of involvement in assisting suicides. The 73-year-old chairman, Jos van Wijk, is according to the Dutch Prosecution Service (DPS) charged with allegedly participating in a criminal organization which has the purpose to commit or plan assisted suicide.
Under Dutch law a criminal organization is determined, when two or more people are in a structured and lasting connection committing crimes and/or planning crimes.
Van Wijk's home was searched on Tuesday, September 28. A second house in the Netherlands has been searched, presumably the home of another board member that is also the registered address of the FWC. The latter is not yet confirmed by the DPS. According to his lawyer, Tim Vis, Van Wijk was interrogated on September 29.
The investigation was initiated in response to a number of recent suicide deaths, says the DPS. The DPS, in this stage of the investigation, doesn’t want to disclose how many cases of assisted suicide van Wijk is suspected of nor give any information on where and when the assisted suicides occurred. Even lawyer Vis does not know this yet.
"The investigation is ongoing," said a spokesman for the DPS, "for that reason we can’t give any further information”.
In July 2021, the police arrested Alex S. a 28-year-old man from Eindhoven Netherlands on suspicion of selling 'suicide pills' to hundreds of people. He was a member of FWC, an organization that advocates for self-determination around the death. According to the DPS at least six people died when this man provided suicide resources. The investigation against the man started after the death of a woman in Best (NL), in May this year.
My wife Caroline and I are delighted that the danger of an organization like FWC has finally been recognized by the DPS. We hope that the arrest of the chairman of the FWC will eventually lead to a conviction and ban on this organization. Of course we think that several board members and promotors of the FWC should also be prosecuted.
Our sense of euphoria is overshadowed by the fact that if the FWC were stopped earlier, our dear daughter Ximena might still be alive. We therefore regret that politicians did not intervene much earlier and that this is now occurring three and a half years after Ximena's death. Three and a half years that we have kept the subject in the spotlights by regular television appearances and newspaper interviews.
Today many survivors that lost loved ones contacted us expressing their gratitude of the ongoing investigations against the FWC and expressing their hope that the involved participants will receive the punishment they deserve.
Dutch law forbids assisted suicide:
Article 294, paragraph 2 states:
The Dutch police arrested the chairman of The Final Wish Cooperative (FWC) in Apeldoorn Netherlands, on suspicion of involvement in assisting suicides. The 73-year-old chairman, Jos van Wijk, is according to the Dutch Prosecution Service (DPS) charged with allegedly participating in a criminal organization which has the purpose to commit or plan assisted suicide.
Under Dutch law a criminal organization is determined, when two or more people are in a structured and lasting connection committing crimes and/or planning crimes.
Van Wijk's home was searched on Tuesday, September 28. A second house in the Netherlands has been searched, presumably the home of another board member that is also the registered address of the FWC. The latter is not yet confirmed by the DPS. According to his lawyer, Tim Vis, Van Wijk was interrogated on September 29.
The investigation was initiated in response to a number of recent suicide deaths, says the DPS. The DPS, in this stage of the investigation, doesn’t want to disclose how many cases of assisted suicide van Wijk is suspected of nor give any information on where and when the assisted suicides occurred. Even lawyer Vis does not know this yet.
"The investigation is ongoing," said a spokesman for the DPS, "for that reason we can’t give any further information”.
In July 2021, the police arrested Alex S. a 28-year-old man from Eindhoven Netherlands on suspicion of selling 'suicide pills' to hundreds of people. He was a member of FWC, an organization that advocates for self-determination around the death. According to the DPS at least six people died when this man provided suicide resources. The investigation against the man started after the death of a woman in Best (NL), in May this year.
My wife Caroline and I are delighted that the danger of an organization like FWC has finally been recognized by the DPS. We hope that the arrest of the chairman of the FWC will eventually lead to a conviction and ban on this organization. Of course we think that several board members and promotors of the FWC should also be prosecuted.
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| Ximena Knol |
Today many survivors that lost loved ones contacted us expressing their gratitude of the ongoing investigations against the FWC and expressing their hope that the involved participants will receive the punishment they deserve.
Dutch law forbids assisted suicide:
Article 294, paragraph 2 states:
“Anyone who intentionally assists another person in suicide or provides him with the means to do so, shall, if the suicide follows, be punished with a term of imprisonment not exceeding three years or a fine of the fourth category.”(a fourth category fine is Max. 21,750 Euro)
To be said that persons usually are convicted to imprisonment, organisations are fined, in this case people involved in this case can be imprisoned where the FWC will likely be fined.
Stichting Ximena’s Vlinder, founded by Randy and Caroline Knol, the parents of Ximena, battled the FWC since the passing of Ximena in February 2018. Randy and Caroline have had over 30 television appearances and in hundreds of news articles. We pay all costs from our private money and through donations from concerned people.
Please help us in this fight by donating through our website: https://ximenavlinder.nl/doneer/
Give them money? I hope they go to jail!!
ReplyDeleteThe Doc, what do you mean? The money is being raised to help fight the murderers and bring them to justice. Are you wanting the father leading this fight to go to jail??
ReplyDeleteIt's a little confusing, but the people asking for money are the parents of the girl who died, not the group of people who helped kill her.
ReplyDeleteThe organization that was founded by the parents of Ximena to ban the suicide powder are asking for support for their work.
ReplyDelete