Responses from the Public Prosecution Service and NFI
A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service said in a response that the case of the Heul girl is still keeping the police and the Public Prosecution Service busy. “We also want nothing more than to find out the identity of the girl. That is why the police and the Public Prosecution Service are still investigating the identity of the Heul girl.” For example, the Public Prosecution Service has made more than ten comparisons with the DNA of missing girls from Germany, Belgium, Poland, Croatia, Italy, Switzerland and Australia.
The NFI says it cannot provide the Heulgirl’s data because it concerns sensitive information about a person. “Providing this by the NFI (by disclosure to anyone as referred to in the Open Government Act) is not permitted in accordance with the legal provisions referred to in the Decree on DNA testing in criminal cases,” says a spokesperson for the NFI. “Providing information to persons not mentioned in the law would jeopardize the carefully designed and strictly regulated process of managing the Dutch DNA database for criminal cases by the NFI and thus the proper functioning of the State.”
The Public Prosecution Service also says it cannot cooperate with the investigation that RTV Utrecht wants to conduct. “The Public Prosecution Service cannot respond to your request for access to this data and to share the DNA material,” the spokesperson said. “By doing so, we would be violating our own instructions and the law. Moreover, it is unacceptable that the Public Prosecution Service would provide DNA material from a victim that is used by third parties for research in a private DNA database.”