The lack of detail may be because Indymedia wants you to go along and protest in the cold, without knowing the full facts. If the full facts were likely to secure your cooperation, they would be up here, wouldn't they?

Knowing Indymedia of old, any attempt to inject the facts at this point will lead to this comment being censored.

But in the hypothetical sense, if an informer is living under police protection, anyone from the group he informed on, who tracks him down and approaches him, is likely to be perceived as an assassin, even if her actual intentions were more benign, or even very, very benign indeed.

Hypothetical informants weren't SHAC's only problem: SHAC's founding leadership hoarded incriminating material on a lot of people, in case they ever needed to blackmail them into staying onside, or into keeping quiet about where the money went, and the Authorities have been unhurriedly mining this hoard of intelligence for several years now.

Holland has the usual continental system of examining magistrates, and Habeas Corpus is alien to continental law, so it's not unusual for someone to stay in custody until the "magistrate" is satisfied of their innocence, rather than someone only being kept in custody if the police convince an English magistrate that there's a good case against them.

Dutch "magistrates" are servants of the state, scrutinizing citizens on the state's behalf.
English Magistrates are, despite Blair and Straw's efforts to the contrary, citizens scrutinizing what the state may do to other citizens. Only a major, continent-wide change of legal system is going to make a Dutch magistrate behave in a manner that seems "fair" to any English observer, and indeed, "fairness" isn't actually a concept even recognized by very many European legal systems, as those extradited to Greece after being found innocent at their trial -and guilty in a secret bureaucratic "appeals" process thereafter- have just discovered.

He's well known in Dutch AR circles, as well as for supporting the squatters and defending human rights cases whenever someone's getting fucked over. I can also say that he is one of the most decent, honest and integral people I've ever met.

I was advised to meet Willem after experiencing some outrageous and repeated police harassment on the streets of Amsterdam, based on a policy of "proactive prevention" (whatever the fuck that means)...and despite not being formally suspected of anything, nor there being reasonable suspicion due to previous involvement in criminal activity or such like.

One letter from Willem was enough in my case, and for me it exemplifies how the prosecutors and police fear him. In the only stop & search I've experienced since, (unrelated to any previous harrassment), name dropping him was sufficient to have the cops quickly backing-off, (without searching, which requires a higher burden of proof and wasn't justified)!

If you need a lawyer because someone's abusing their power, you need this man:--
 http://nl.linkedin.com/pub/willem-jebbink/9/932/3b1

Demos at embassies are ok, but if you're a foreigner and you've come to the Netherlands and committed a crime then a good lawyer is a much better idea than a demo. I assure you that if she's being held illegally then Dutch due process will see the right outcome, but a good lawyer will certainly speed things up!

Fortunately the Dutch judiciary isn't as corrupted as the English system, although aws are becoming more fascist and draconian here, but crime is crime and if you do it and then get caught you have to do the time....although fortunately for her, Dutch jails are also safer and more accommodating than English ones.