Five men sentenced for their involvement in Amsterdam soccer riots
By Catherine Nicholls, CNN
(CNN) — A Dutch court sentenced five men on Tuesday for charges related to violence that broke out after a soccer match in Amsterdam last month.
The clashes unfolded after a soccer game between Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv and Amsterdam’s Ajax on November 7, sparking international outcry and condemnation.
Multiple social media videos showed Maccabi fans chanting anti-Arab slurs, praising Israeli military attacks in Gaza and yelling “f**k the Arabs” in the run up to the match. After the match, Maccabi fans were violently attacked in the streets. Social media video showed people shouting antisemitic slurs and setting off fireworks inside a tram.
In a 12-page letter released days after the riots, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said that the violence, which injured around 25 to 35 Israeli soccer fans, had stemmed “from a toxic combination of antisemitism, hooliganism, and anger about the conflicts in Palestine and Israel, and other countries in the Middle East.”
Other community leaders in the city told CNN that right-wing figures, like the anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders, were stoking tensions for political gain.
Of the men sentenced on Tuesday, three were found guilty of committing violence and two were found guilty of aiding and abetting violence, a statement from the Dutch court said. One of the men was also found guilty of making offensive remarks against Jewish people.
A 32-year-old man was sentenced to six months in prison for several acts of violence, including punching and kicking multiple victims who were on the ground and fly kicking another person into a moving tram, according to the court.
Two men, both 26, were found guilty of aiding and abetting the riots that took place by sending information into a WhatsApp group that could help those committing violence.
Dutch public broadcaster NOS said that one of the men sent messages into a group of around 900 people, telling them where “those Jews” could be found. The other man called for violence in the same group, writing that he would never get the same chance to hit Jewish people again, NOS reported. The men were sentenced to a month and 10 weeks in prison, respectively.
Chief prosecutor René de Beukelaer said that the men were not charged for any terrorist acts because their intention was not to instill fear in a certain group, but instead came from “anger, frustration and sadness” about the situation in Gaza, NOS reported earlier this month.
A 24-year-old, who attacked Maccabi supporters with a group of other men, was given a one-month prison sentence for violence including kicking a person who was already on the ground multiple times and for stealing a scarf from a Maccabi supporter.
A 19-year-old was sentenced under the Netherlands’ juvenile law to 100 hours of community service for carrying out acts of violence before the match took place, including being violent to a police officer and vehicles during a pre-game demonstration, participating in group chats calling for violence against Maccabi supporters, and for carrying an illegal firework, according to the court.
The five men are the first to be tried and sentenced in connection with the riots.
The violence left five people in hospital, authorities said at the time, with 20 to 30 others suffering minor injuries. More than 60 suspects were detained after the riots, they said.
This story has been updated.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
