PHILIPSBURG--Female blogger J.R. was released from pre-trial detention on Tuesday and will have to appear in court on October 21 for the new “crimes” she has committed, Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Karola van Nie said in a press release on Tuesday.
Van Nie said the Judge of Instruction had followed the request of the Prosecutor’s Office to suspend R.’s pre-trial detention again. The Prosecutor’s Office also dropped some of the special conditions that had been attached to R.’s original pre-trial suspension.
R. is no longer obligated to cooperate with the Probation Department and a psychologist or a psychiatrist. However, she still is not allowed to contact the persons who pressed charges against her and she still must be available for the police and Justice Department. She also “cannot commit new crimes,” Van Nie said.
R. has to appear in court on October 21 for her two latest crimes. “The other cases are still under investigation,” Van Nie said.
The blogger was arrested on Monday for the second time in two months after she violated the conditions of her release from pre-trial detention in July. R. is suspected of “offending an attorney and a police officer in public,” although she was released on the condition that she should not commit new crimes.
R. was first arrested on June 30 for a number of offences, including slander, defamation, insult, threat, harassment (stalking) and extortion. She was arrested after several persons pressed charges against her for the offences from January 2014 to June.
The offences were committed via social media and in person, the Prosecutor’s Office had said at the time. R.’s initial arrest was followed by a house search at her home in St. Peters. Data carriers such as phones, laptops and computers were confiscated for further investigation at that time.
