The Public Prosecutor's Office is speeding up the trial surrounding the explosion of violence after the Ajax - Maccabi Tel Aviv match. On Wednesday and Thursday, five suspects will appear in court, not all of them equally guilty. "I'm a little jazzed up.
'I am sorry, I am not a bad person,' Sefa Ö. (32) told the judge on Wednesday. Footage in the Amsterdam court has just shown Ö. kicking a man so hard on Dam Square that he falls against a passing streetcar. He is recognizable by his somewhat stocky build, dressed in a striking long white coat.
As the victim lay on the ground, he was kicked and punched by other men from the group in which Ö. played a leading role, according to the prosecutor. Ö., of Turkish descent, is one of five suspects standing before the Amsterdam court on Wednesday for the violence surrounding the Ajax - Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer match on Nov. 7.
But only two of these suspects were involved in the events that also caused shock internationally: the brutal beatings of dozens of Israeli soccer supporters in the center of Amsterdam. Groups of men were deliberately searching for Israeli supporters that night after the game; it was called a "Jew hunt.
The prosecution suspects Ö. of involvement in the beating of at least six Israeli supporters that night. There is also camera footage showing him and his group assaulting two men in an alley near Dam Square.
What possessed him that night, Ö. would not tell the judge. He suffers from bipolar disorder and has difficulty regulating his emotions. In addition to his work in a barber store, he lives on Wajong benefits.
The prosecutor is demanding 2 years in prison against him, including six months of probation. It is the heaviest demand this session day. The case against a 22-year-old suspect with a Palestinian background with the heaviest charge against him, attempted manslaughter, continues Thursday because the interpreter has to leave.
Chaotic course
It is indicative of the somewhat chaotic course of the first of two court days dedicated to the outbreak of violence surrounding the fraught soccer match. Because of the social commotion, the Public Prosecutor's Office wanted to start the criminal cases quickly to show that the perpetrators of this violence are being dealt with. Dozens of journalists attended, including foreign media.
But there are snags in that speed. The suspects called are not all the biggest instigators of the violence: the most serious suspicions against a 19-year-old suspect, for example, are possession of heavy fireworks and throwing a rock at police near the stadium. Visibly intimidated, the teenager suspected of what nevertheless looks like "regular" soccer violence looks at the crowded room of interested people behind him.
The prosecution has also decided to summon defendants without knowing who their victims are. As a result, the rights of the victims may be at stake. So argue two lawyers, Johan Oosterhagen and Peter Plasman, speaking on behalf of sixty clients, mostly Maccabi supporters. For example, the victims cannot exercise their right to speak. The Public Prosecutor's Office reassures them with the promise that they can submit requests for compensation on behalf of their clients.
Neighborhood House2
In court, the extent of the role of chat groups in the violence against Israeli supporters becomes clear. In particular, it concerns the group Neighborhood House2, in which over nine hundred people are active. What the participants did not know was that the police were reading along.
This is how suspect Rachid O. (26) from Utrecht came into the picture. Because of his contributions in this chat group, he is accused of complicity in open violence and of group insult.
'I'll never get the chance to hit cancer Jews again,' O. wrote that night in Neighborhood House2. He also writes that he stole 'a tellie' from a Maccabi supporter and dealt blows. 'Cancerous Jews, did any Jews die, stabbed, on the ic?" he wants to know in the middle of the night.
O. tries to explain to the judge that these messages are "about Maccabi fans, and not about Jews in general. I never had problems with Jewish people. It was bullying. Those supporters come here and shout that Arabs should die. Videos of that on social media made me angry.'
"There could then be an atmosphere of people being riled up, do you understand that?" the judge asks him.
O. says he is sorry and that he was stupid. 'I'm a little riled up, too.'
The prosecutor is demanding 6 months against him, 2 of which are suspended. This is far too much, his lawyer Yasmine Finani believes. She questions whether "the infiltration" of the police into the app groups was legitimate. Does the social pressure surrounding the case play into it, she wonders. "The court may be influenced by it.
Press for justice
Lawyer Krit Zeegers of Mohammed B., 26, who was born in Syria, also believes that the pressure on justice due to the social unrest has greatly influenced the case against his client. B. was involved in an incident the afternoon before the match. With a belt in his hand, he went after a group of Maccabi supporters; images of it have gone viral.
Remarkably, the police had already spoken with him and the supporters involved at that time. The supporters told the police that there had been irritations back and forth and that they were not going to press charges. Yet the next day B. was arrested by an anti-terrorism unit, which kicked in the door of his parents' home. His mother still can't sleep from it, says B. Disproportionate, his lawyer believes.
'I fully admit that this probably would not have gone the way it did if a video of it had not been distributed after this incident on Spui with the subtitle: see how our brothers chase away Zionists,' the prosecutor said.
On the other hand, he said, these affixed cases will be disappointing to those expecting heavy sentences. None of the cases, he said, can be proven to involve violence with terrorist intent, which had been advocated in the House of Representatives.
'It is true that the violence caused shock and instilled fear in the Jewish community,' the prosecutor said. 'But it cannot be proven that the violence had a terrorist intent. For that, it must be proven that that was the purpose. That has not been sufficiently established.
