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VANCOUVER — The Dutch Supreme Court has rejected online extortionist Aydin Coban’s bid to scrap his Canadian sentence for tormenting B.C. teenager Amanda Todd, whose mother calls the ruling a “moment of justice.”
Coban is a Dutch national who was extradited, tried and given a 13-year sentence in B.C., before being sent back to the Netherlands where he was already serving time for separate offences.
The Canadian sentence was then converted to six years by Dutch authorities.
The Netherlands Supreme Court has now upheld the converted sentence, saying in a decision posted online Tuesday that Coban’s lawyers wanted the term reduced to zero because the maximum sentence had already been imposed in the similar Dutch case against him.
But the court disagreed, saying that those rules in the Dutch criminal code did not apply to the conversion of a sentence imposed in Canada.
Carol Todd, Amanda Todd’s mother, said the Dutch ruling brought her a sense of relief.
“This decision signifies a moment of justice for the actions committed by (Coban) against my daughter, Amanda.”
Coban was convicted by B.C. Supreme Court in 2022 of the extortion and harassment of Port Coquitlam teenager Todd, who died by suicide at the age of 15.
She took her own life in October 2012 after being blackmailed and harassed online by Coban for years, starting when Todd was 12.
The month before the teen died, she uploaded a nine-minute video using a series of flash cards detailing the abuse she experienced and how it had affected her life. It has since been viewed millions of times.
A Dutch court sentenced him to almost 11 years in prison for similar online offences following a trial in Amsterdam in 2017, where he was accused of the online abuse of 34 girls and five gay men.
Todd said a B.C. prosecutor confirmed through the Dutch courts that Coban had begun serving his Canadian sentence on Sept. 10, last year.
“I’m glad that it got upheld and didn’t go back down to zero, and that sort of shows me that the Dutch courts understand the severity of the crime he committed, not only to Amanda, but to the other victims of which he did similar things,” Todd said in an interview Tuesday.
She said she hopes that Coban serves “every single day” of the additional six year sentence, saying it “keeps one more predator off the grid.”
“The ruling reaffirms (my) faith in the legal system and provides a sense of hope and healing for the future,” she said.
Todd has also renewed calls for federal legislation in Canada to protect other victims, citing an uptick in online sexual exploitation of children.
Statistics Canada has reported the rate of online child sexual exploitation reported to police rose by 58 per cent from 2019 to 2022. Mounties across Canada have issued news releases warning of increased cases in their communities, noting that the consequences for the victims can include self-harm and suicide.
Todd said updates to her case, while they can be retraumatizing, allow her the opportunity to shine a light on the growing issue and took the opportunity to implore Canadian politicians to come to a common ground and push for national legislation.
“Our parties should not be arguing about it for months and months and days and days,” she said. “We need to just get this going, and they need to work together.”
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament and announced his resignation the online harms bill had not yet been passed into legislation.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 28, 2025.
Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press