r/nottheonion • u/DerangedUnicorn27 • 4d ago

Convicted child rapist qualifies for Olympics

https://www.newsweek.com/steven-van-de-velde-dutch-beach-volleyball-olympics-1918442
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u/CheruthCutestory 4d ago

But it happened in Britain.

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u/TheGodEmperorOfChaos 4d ago

Extradition is a legal process that allows the transfer of a person suspected or convicted of committing a crime from one jurisdiction to another. An individual might be extradited for the purpose of criminal prosecution or for the carrying out of a custodial sentence or detention order.

It happened in the UK, he was later arrested, extradited to the UK, where he was tried, convicted and sentenced to four years in prison. He was transferred back to the Netherlands and resentenced under Dutch law.

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u/westbee 4d ago

Could you imagine? 

Go to UK, kill a hundred people, they try you in court and sentence you to 500 years, then send you back to your country. Then your country says, "oh no killing British is okay - time served, let him go."

Britain - Pikachu face! 

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u/Max_FI 4d ago

That's literally what happened to an Azerbaijani soldier who murdered an Armenian soldier in Hungary. And he was even hailed as a hero.

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u/ram_the_socket 4d ago

Law loopholes. There’s always a way somehow.

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u/Duck_Von_Donald 4d ago

Well, something like that has happened multiple times, its just not those countries that you send prisoners to anymore.

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u/Ayiko- 4d ago

Some countries would first arrest some random British guy on bogus charges, torture him once in a while and then propose a prisoner exchange. Once the prisoner arrives in his country, he gets pardoned and thrown a big victory party.

Well, Iran did just that with Belgian humanitarian worker Olivier Vandecasteele to exchange him for the "diplomat" Asadi preparing for a bomb attack on Iranian opposition members.

But I think we digressed a bit from the topic. Afaik the Netherlands didn't hire him to rape British children, but had differences in laws and sentencing for some crimes.

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u/TripleStackGunBunny 4d ago

It's something that the Norwegian government is trying to sort out with anders breivik. Maximum penalty is 21 years, regardless of how many people he killed.

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u/Rin-Tohsaka-is-hot 3d ago

Not sure about 500 people, but this has happened many many times for murder charges.

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u/TheLizardKing89 4d ago

Why would he be sent back to the Netherlands? If you commit a crime in the US, you serve your sentence here and get deported after you serve your sentence.

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u/Jimmyking4ever 3d ago

Being wealthy has it's advantages

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u/manymoreways 3d ago

Even 4 years is ridiculously low. If anything it should be life in prison. Guy groomed the kid for 2 years before that.... Shit was straight evil.

 Chemical castration should be the lowest form of punishment. Hell UK did it to innocent gays why tf dont they do it to pedos?

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u/insomnimax_99 4d ago

He fled to The Netherlands after doing it, so he had to be extradited.

The Netherlands will only extradite their own citizens if the other country agrees to return them to The Netherlands after conviction to serve their sentence there.

So he was extradited to the UK, convicted, and sentenced to four years (plus registering as a sex offender for life). He was then sent back to The Netherlands as per the extradition agreement, and re-sentenced according to dutch law, which sentenced him to one year.

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u/ForceOfAHorse 3d ago

It's similar in Britain too. "Rape" is not "had sex with a young person" kind of a deal. These are two different things.

Honestly, I think only in USA people actually call having sex with a young person "a rape".

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u/Fickle-Presence6358 3d ago

What are you on about? He was charged and convicted of 3 counts of rape in the UK.

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u/ForceOfAHorse 3d ago

This information isn't in article, where did you find it?