Dutch government admits illegal spying on Caribbean island

Jopie Abraham, center, during negotiations with the Dutch government, ANP photo

Translated from NOS TV in the Netherlands:

Former minister of Bonaire island spied upon illegally

Today, 08:12

Jopie Abraham, former minister and executive authority member of Bonaire, was unlawfully spied upon by the intelligence service AIVD. The politician had complained about that to [Dutch Home Office] Minister Plasterk and then came a study conducted by the Commission for Supervision of Intelligence and Security (CTIVD).

Plasterk has written a letter to Abraham in which he says that it was “a short period” and that measures have been taken, reports NRC daily.

Plasterk does not want to tell many details anyway, because the CTIVD report is “secret”. Abraham says that the AIVD has spied upon politicians in Bonaire in the period that they negotiated with the Dutch government about incorporation into the Netherlands. In 2010, the Dutch West Indies were disbanded. Bonaire became then on October 10, along with Saba and St. Eustatius, a special municipality in the Netherlands.

State security

The action by the AIVD in Bonaire was “mostly legitimate,” Plasterk wrote in his letter. But for a short time no spying should have been done and that part is therefore illegal.

Abraham, who was leader of the Partido Demokrátiko Boneriano, was an MP when there was a burglary in his office. Documents disappeared and because he did not trust that he asked to see his AIVD file. But although this is a legal right, Minister Plasterk declined access by invoking national security.

During the period that the service gathered information about Abraham Bonaire was part of the Netherlands Antilles. Former Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage says not to have known of the spying, although she then officially had to give permission for it.