A Dutch national facing extradition from Kenya to the Netherlands has died while in police custody. Jan Jacobus Brouwer, 66, succumbed to stage four esophageal cancer on Tuesday at Aster Healthcare Hospital in Nairobi, according to authorities.
Mr Brouwer was hospitalised on January 20, shortly after his arrest on an international warrant issued by Dutch officials. Before his admission, he had been detained at Parklands Police Station as extradition proceedings unfolded at the Milimani Law Courts.
Following his death, his body was transferred to the mortuary for a postmortem examination and further legal formalities.
Mr Brouwer had been convicted in the Netherlands in 2020 on two counts of sexually abusing minors aged 12 to 16. His arrest in Nairobi on January 13 followed a formal extradition request by the Dutch government through its embassy.
The Nairobi Chief Magistrate’s Court issued an arrest warrant the same day, based on an application by Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga.
According to the Director of Public Prosecution, the judgement against Mr Brouwer was issued on December 28, 2020, by the Limburg District Court, within the Kingdom of Netherlands and he is needed to be extradited for the purpose of serving the sentence.
The DPP, through a notice of motion, said the Netherlands wanted Mr Brouwer to be returned or conveyed out of Kenya and surrendered to the authorities there to serve his prison sentence for two counts of committing non-consensual lewd acts, which include sexual penetration of the person, with a person who has attained the age of 12 years but has not attained the age of 16 years.
He was also accused of using force to conduct the acts consisting of sexual penetration for which he was prosecuted and convicted on December 28, 2020.
Subsequently, Mr Brouwer filed an appeal which was dismissed by the Dutch Bosch Court of Appeal on December 21, 2021.
The application was supported by the affidavit sworn by Magdalene Nduati, a principal prosecution counsel, who told the magistrate that the ODPP received a formal request from the Ministry of Justice and Security of the Kingdom of Netherlands Central Authority, through Anna Lodeweges, acting head of the Netherlands Authority for Mutual Legal Assistance in criminal matters, for the arrest and extradition of Jacobus back to his country.
On December 17 last year, they received additional materials from the Public Prosecutor in Zwolle, Netherlands to issue an arrest warrant.
After the dismissal of the appeal by Den Bosch Court of Appeal, the official notice of the judgement was served in person on the respondent in Mombasa and he had 14 days to file an appeal in cessation against the judgement which he failed to lodge by himself or through his representatives hence the sentence has deemed irrevocable as per June 10, 2023.
On November 21, 2023, the examining judge in Zwolle issued a European arrest warrant for the arrest and extradition of the respondent.
Upon independent review of the request and annexures and get satisfied that the offences of rape and similar offences are disclosed as extradition crimes and therefore meet the legal threshold set in the schedule to the extradition (Contiguous and Foreign Countries) Act, Cap 76, Laws of Kenya.
For the interest of justice, Nduati concluded that there are legal basis “for this honourable court to endorse a judgement that was issued against the respondent in the republic of Netherlands as the threshold of his extradition has been met.”
While giving the directions in the matter, the Milimani magistrate’s court considered the application by the DPP and obliged to issue a warrant of arrest against the respondent.
“In considering the application filed by the DPP, I hereby issue a warrant of arrest against the respondent for the purpose of facilitating his extradition,” the magistrate said.
