Dutch anti-curfew rioters appear in court
THE HAGUE: Six people appeared in court in The Netherlands on Thursday following anti-coronavirus curfew riots in which protesters clashed with police and shops were looted and cars set alight.
Rioting broke out in a small town in central Netherlands on Saturday night, the first evening of a 9pm-4.30 am curfew.
The curfew, which government said will help the spread of new more infectious strains of coronavirus is the first since World War II.
Unrest quickly spread to major cities over the following two nights and left a trail of destruction.
The six, aged between 15 and 37, made a brief appearance before the Alkmaar District Court on charges relating to the protests.
They will appear again on Feb 5 and 9 on charges including public violence, threats and incitement and the possession of illegal fireworks, Marleen van Fessem, a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office told AFP.
Judges across the Netherlands have already sentenced at least 10 people in similar special hearings.
In one case, judges in The Hague on Wednesday sentenced a 19-year-old man to two months behind bars for throwing rocks at a police van.
The man told the judges he was “extremely sorry and deeply ashamed”, the NOS public broadcaster reported.
“Police and prosecution services are working full steam to track down the perpetrators,” Van Fessem told AFP.
“We have also confiscated mobile phones and will use that to track down other suspects. More arrests are not excluded,” she said.
Other convicted perpetrators were also sentenced to short jail terms or community service.
Meanwhile Dutch King WillemAlexander on Thursday visited Den Bosch, one of the cities hardest hit by the riots, the NOS reported.
His visit included a chat with Maaike Neufeglise who wept in front of her destroyed shop the day after the riots.