Boxtel councillor resigns after election fraud arrest

Sohib H. (38) has resigned from the Boxtel municipal council. His party, D66, announced it through group leader Wiebe de Leijer at the council meeting on Tuesday evening. H. was arrested on 27 October on suspicion of, among other things, election fraud and corruption.

H.'s seat stayed empty at the meeting. Mayor Ronald van Meygaarden first said H. was "unable to attend", after which De Leijer took the floor. "The chair next to me will stay empty tonight," De Leijer said. "Yesterday you were informed that my group colleague has submitted his resignation to the chair of the council. We respect that decision, of course."

D66 wants to install a replacement at the next council meeting on 15 December. After the arrest, the party suspended H. for three months.

H. became a councillor in 2018 and was twice elected with a large number of preference votes. In the 2020 election he did better than D66's lead candidate. This year he stood second on the party's list, and D66 grew from two seats to three.

Alongside his council work, H. works for the Public Prosecution Service (OM). The OM had already barred him from working because of a separate criminal investigation into money laundering. D66 said it was shocked by the suspicions when it suspended him.