Disputed book Forbidden

The Breda municipal court has ordered by injunction that the book about the death of Bebe Paña en Divina Urbi by author DJ Barreveld, must be taken out of circulation while distributed books need to be recalled in lieue of a penalty of 1000 Euro's per day. The same goes for a number of websites. The injunction was made against the "stichting Abot Kamay" and "Oriental Decorations", all owned by the female members of the Barreveld family (Spouse Leticia and daugthers Djanicella en Rubinoor). The judge ruled that the statements in the book were slanderous and 'very seriously damaging to the name of Paña's spouse'. The Barrevelds were also condemned to bear the legal cost.

The case was brought forward by the husband of the deceased Bebe Paña. He argued through his lawyer Kay Roderburg (Spong & Hammerstein advocaten) on 19 januari 2008, that the book was a compilation of slander and lies.

The author for instance stated that the husband was guilty of 3 murders while supposedly enjoying special protection of the prosecutors office.

During the proceedings the only counterargument was put up by Barreveld's spouse Leticia, ex-boardmember of Abot Kamay (all board members acutely stepped down when faced with the libel suit), the publisher of the book and also owner of 'Oriental Decorations' the owner of a slanderous website. Her defense was to 'play dumb': In spite of having been married to a Dutchman for 25 years and being on the board of a foundation claiming to facilitate integration of Filipina's in the Netherlands, Leticia Barreveld claimed not to speak Dutch, not to have read the book and not being able to write. This was genuinely playing dumb as she was freely speaking Dutch outside the courtroom and had written letters in Dutch that were included in the files.

The plaintiff showed that even the most simple and easy to check statements in the book were false. This was left uncontested by the defendand other than that the book was 'fantasy' telling how things 'could have happened'.

In an interview with local television, immediately after the proceedings Barreveld already had confessed that he had lied in the book.

It is highly uncommon that a book is forbidden in the Netherlands, the only other book being 'Mein Kampf'.

The Husband of Paña said he would also file criminal charges against Barreveld, slander being a crime with a maximum jail sentence of 2 years.

Barreveld stated after the verdict that he had not suffered any financial damages since the book was being published through on-line publisher Lulu.

On the BOL.com website the following reviews of this book could be found:

Slecht geschreven en verzonnen
Het boek lijkt meer de persoonlijke fantasie van de schrijver: de strekking is "ik weet het allemaal veel beter en als de politie en Peter de Vries nou maar naar mij hadden geluisterd dan was het allemaal goedgekomen". De beweringen van Barreveld zijn kennelijk destijds al tijdens het proces naar het rijk der fabelen bewezen en daarvóór al door Peter de Vries (zoals Barreveld zelf - geirriteerd- optekent). Uit zijn opmerkingen over redenen voor cassatie ('twee rechters zijn tot totaal tegenovergestelde conclusies gekomen") en de functie van de CEAS, blijkt hij geen kaas gegeten te hebben van het juridisch proces in Nederland. Kennelijk inderdaad te lang in het buitenland gezeten. Klaarblijkelijk dacht hij 'als de Vries geld kan verdienen met Joran, dan kan ik het met deze zaak'. Slecht geschreven, langdradige (en ongetwijfeld onware) verhalen over hoe goed hij zelf is en de overige feiten zijn gelogen zoals hij inmiddels zelf in een interview heeft toegegeven. De fantasieën van een marginale getuige met grootheidswaanzin. Als je een boek over een zaak wilt schrijven hou je dan aan de feiten. Als je een verhaal wilt verzinnen, schrijf dan een roman.

Badly written and fantasy
The book seems to be the personal fantasy of the writer, the mantra being: "I know everything better and if the police and crimereporter Peter de Vries had only listened to me, then things would have worked out fine". Barreveld's statements apparently already were discarded as fairy tales during the criminal trial and before that by crime reportre de Vries (as Barreveld himself -clearly irrited- notes). From his statements about grounds for supreme court appeal ('two judges who have come to totally opposite conclusions') and the function of the CEAS, it becomes appearant that he has no knowledge whatsoever of the judicial process. Obviously he has been abraod too long. Clearly he was thinking: "if De Vries can make money on Joran, I can make it on this case". Badly written, longwinded (and no doubt untrue) stories on how good he himself is and the other statements are lies as he now has admitted himself in a TV interview. The fantasies of a marginal witness with Megalomania. If you want to write a book about a case, stick to the facts. If you want to make up a story, write a novel.

taalgebruik
Deze schrijver was OF lange tijd in het buitenland OF hij heeft zijn boek niet laten redigeren. Wat een hoop taal -en tikfouten! Gemiddeld vier per pagina! Ook de opmaak (met regelmatig meerdere spaties tussen woorden) deugt niet. Dan is er nog de inhoud. Er is veel onderzoek verricht, maar de opbouw van het verhaal is onlogisch en soms niet te volgen. Het boek heeft iets weg van een persoonlijke vete van Barreveld tegen de hoofdverdachte. Dat leid ik af uit de drive om de meest stupide zaken te weerleggen, maar ook uit het feit dat Barreveld zelf één van de getuigen was die is gehoord door justitie. Het is te hopen dat een volgende druk er beter uitkomt.

Language
This writer was either abroad for a long time or he has not had his book edited. A lot of spelling mistakes and typo's. On average 4 on every page! Also the formatting (frequently with multiple spaces between words) is horrible. And then there is the content. There has been a lot of research, but the story line is unlogical and sometimes hard to follow. The book seems mostly a personal feud van Barreveld against the main suspect. I gather that from the drive to argue the most insignificant facts but also from the fact that Barreveld was one of the witnesses that was heard by the police. Let's hope that a next print comes out better.

duur
Een overdadig aantal taal -en tikfouten, kromme zinnen, veel zijpaden, verkeerde opmaak: deze uitgave is een amateuristische en ik mag hopen dat de auteur de volgende druk(ken) wat aanpassingen pleegt. Zijn persoonlijke belangen en niet al te feitelijke onderbouwing ("wat ik niet weet heb ik zelf volgens logica ingevuld") voeren de boventoon. Dit boek is erg duur voor wat je krijgt.

expensive
An excess of linguistical errors and typo's, strange sentences, detours and bad formatting: This publication is amateuristic and I may hope that the author makes some adaptations in the next print. His personal interests and the rather non-factual foundation ("What I did not know I made up myself according to logic") are the main focus. This book is very expensive for what you get.

Distributer Lulu.com already had stopped distributing the book prior to the verdict because of breach of agreement.

This criticism on Bareveld seems not to be restricted to this one book. Barreveld seems to make a profession out of writing unfounded, ill-written books in an a continuous attempt to make a 'quick buck'. Customer Reviews on a few more of his books are e.g. as follows:

No wonder the author got this book out so soon after Enron's fall. He filled the book with the work of others and then threw in old essays on the failures of capitalism that have no connection to the Enron scandal. Don' waste your money on this book.

(Over: The Enron Collapse: Creative Accounting, Wrong Economics or Criminal Acts?)

Let's make a quick buck after 9/11 by pumping out a book on terrorism, When I first began reading this book I was taken aback by how horrible the writing was. It is for the most part grammatically incorrect. My fears were partially allayed when I read on the back cover that the author was in fact Dutch, and did not speak English as his first language. While I would have thought the publisher should have taken responsibility for cleaning up the writing, I gave the book a second chance and continued reading. It became abundantly clear that the author had very little in depth knowledge of the Abu Sayaf group. The entire first quarter of the book is nothing but filler explaining Islam and the concept of martyrdom in very generic and in places incorrect terms. What little I could stomach reading further when the author actually began to write about the ASG was also very generic and partially incorrect, or at least in contradiction to other writing on the subject. I have no way to determine if the author's sources are in fact more authentic because he fails to cite anything of significance. The few endnotes that he has for each chapter are almost exclusively from secondary sources. The only explanation I can come up with for the publishing of this book was that the publisher saw an opportunity to make a quick buck shortly after 9/11 by publishing a book with the words "Terrorism" and "Bin Laden" on the cover. If you are looking for a well researched and informative book on this topic I would recommend Militant Islam in Southeast Asia by Zachary Abuza.

(Over: Terrorism in the Philippines: THE BLOODY TRAIL OF ABU SAYYAF, BIN LADEN'S EAST ASIAN CONNECTION)