Kijlstra, H. (Hans)

Mr Hans Kijlstra is a judge at the district court of Amsterdam since 2002. Before joining the judiciary he worked as a legal officer and manager for the administration. Until 2011 he was an administrative judge and a managing judge. Since 2011 Hans Kijlstra works as a criminal judge. He set up and chaired the specialized chamber for human trafficking for 3 years. He was chairman of the chamber for extraditions and European Arrest Warrants for several years. The chamber has exclusive competence for European Arrest Warrants and decides as a last instance court. Mr Kijlstra also set up the European research project on surrender and judgements in absentia in which six member-states of the EU participated and acted as advisor during this project (2017 – 2019).  From 2017 up to March 2020 he was an international observer to the process of transitional re-evaluation (vetting) of judges and prosecutors in Albania.