Mayor Jan ten Kate shakes hands with council members after the Staphorst municipality council meeting on the riots that occurred on November 19, 2022 around the arrival of Sinterklaas in the municipality of Overijssel. ANP / ANP image
After more than an hour in court, Zwolle talks extensively about clogs. The screen behind the right one then shows a blackface man in a red and black Pete suit, standing in a crowd wearing wooden shoes in front of a Ford Mondeo.
“Do you recognize yourself?”, the judge asks the suspect Johan B. (27), previously identified as the man with clogs who had thrown an egg at another car. “Not 1,2,3,” he says. According to him, he may also have been one of the other one hundred and fifty rioters waiting for the Kick Out Zwarte Piet (KOZP) in Staphorst on November 19, 2022.
B. will be tried on Tuesday together with two others for public violence in Staphorst. What should have been a peaceful demonstration against the color black that Piet still carries in the village of Overijssel turned out to be an intimidating attack on protesters and Amnesty International employees. First at the A28 exit in Staphorst, then at a petrol station in Meppel.
From the author
Iva Venneman is a general journalist at De Volkskrant
Despite the large presence, the police did not make any arrests that day. However, Kick Out Zwarte Piet protesters and Amnesty International employees denounced the rioters.
“Fundamental rights violated”
The Public Prosecutor’s Office (OM) accuses the three suspects – and a fourth who is at home due to a sick lawyer – of having been part of a group on Tuesday that aimed to “stop the KOZP demonstrators”. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, that group committed all types of criminal crimes, including hitting cars with eggs, fireworks and oily substances, as well as stealing car keys and intimidating the occupants.
And although these crimes were not committed exclusively by these four suspects, the Prosecutor’s Office claims that the four made a “significant contribution”. They are therefore all on trial for public violence.
The officer heavily accuses them of having violated, with their actions, the fundamental rights of the protesters, freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate. “We live in a time where there are many conflicting points of view in society, where there are frequent demonstrations.” The Public Prosecutor therefore requests, in addition to 180 hours of community service and the payment of compensation to the five victims, two weeks of conditional community service against the four suspects.
‘Getting out of hand’
Their advisors respond by saying that although things “got out of hand” that day, their clients can only be charged for their own contribution. In the case of Johan B. this would involve throwing an egg and shaking a car, in the case of Jaron S. (22) it would mean lighting a blue flashlight and in the case of Klaas H. (21) also throwing an egg at a windshield.
Lawyers also have another defence, which links to the question most often asked on Tuesday: why are there only four suspects, when there were around 150 rioters near the A28 that day? Kick Out Zwarte Piet said Tuesday morning that he believes the trial of these four is a “small consolation.” Amnesty International agrees.
“How fair is it that these four suspects are held accountable for what an entire group did and are now considered the biggest rioters?”, asks lawyer Umut Yildirim, who represents Klaas H. (21). S. city councilor Henk Voors also contributed. «I don’t want to think that it wouldn’t have been possible to identify others. As long as you invest time and effort in this.’
Not good for the image
The officer stressed that he had done everything possible to identify the rioters through wiretaps, social media analyzes and television broadcasts by, among others, Opsporing Verzocht. “But some perpetrators of violence are not clearly represented on screen and so one can only speculate.”
Then he rebounded the ball. “If your client really finds it so annoying to be one in four and not one in a hundred, why doesn’t he mention one of the names?” When the suspects were asked if they recognized other rioters, they remained silent.
The judge will rule on this case on January 31. The case of the fourth suspect will be heard in April.
An earlier version stated that two weeks of unconditional prison had been requested for the four suspects. This is expected to be a two-week suspended prison sentence.
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2024-01-16 20:38:24
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