Arie Zeelenberg

[Iain McKie]

I thought it might be of interest to inform you that Arie Zeelenberg, former head of the Netherlands Fingerprint Service, has been awarded the ‘Order of the Netherlands Lion’, one of his country’s highest Royal honours, for his services to the science.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_ ... lands_Lion

As many will know Arie was involved in my daughter’s case, and that of Fred Van Der Vyver in South Africa, and has been in the forefront of developing fingerprinting as a forensic science.

He played a central part in the public inquiry which completely cleared Shirley and proved the Scottish experts wrong.

Arie’s award only serves to highlight the importance of fingerprint experts, not only in detecting crime, but in preventing miscarriages of justice.

Had Pat Wertheim and David Grieve not come to Scotland and given evidence Shirley would have gone to prison with all the terrible implications that would have had for her and our family.

Had so many American experts and others from across the world not stood up to be counted in support, the system would not have been forced to admit its shortcomings.

Each and everyone of you is honoured in our eyes and you will never be forgotten.

[Les Bush]

Thank you for the posting Iain,

My heartfelt congratulations to Arie for this award, a Lion in the fingerprint world. He has made his family and country very proud because of the work he has done in the Netherlands, Europe and the UK. I am sure he is honoured to receive the acknowledgement and it is truly well deserved.

Well done Arie, from oz. Les