On Monday, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) demanded a prison sentence of 174 days and six months probation against Max van den B. (30) on appeal. Last year he stood with a burning torch in front of the house of D66 leader Sigrid Kaag.
In addition, the Public Prosecution Service demands that the court impose a contact and area ban on the suspect for members of the cabinet. As far as the prosecutor is concerned, Van den B. does not have to go back to prison, because he has already served his sentence in pre-trial detention.
Last year, the police judge sentenced Van den B. to six months in prison for threatening Kaag. The OM had then demanded nine months in prison. Van den B. appealed against the verdict, which was submitted to the court in The Hague on Monday. “Demonstration is allowed. What we don’t want is for people to cross borders,” said the prosecutor at the court. “In fact, the suspect has gone to play for his own judge.”
The suspect from Amsterdam admits that on January 5, 2022, he stood in front of Kaag’s door with a burning torch and shouted slogans in her street. His protest was filmed for social media. He said he had not intended to threaten Kaag. “The intention was to walk down her street and make contact with her. We then immediately left when it turned out that she did not want to speak to us,” said the suspect. “If I could have done it over again, I wouldn’t have taken the torch to the door. That looked a bit clumsy.”
Lawyer calls torch ‘a positive symbol of freedom’
The prosecutor called the impact of the threat very large. “The suspect sees it as his duty to fight the government. This has been a very frightening situation for the residents. In a democratic state under the rule of law, it is important that politicians can do their job without fear and threats.”
According to Van den B.’s lawyer, there is no legal threat, because the torch is “a positive symbol of freedom” and “not an instrument of threat”. The counselor also sees nothing in the suspended part of a sentence. She called six months in prison for a violation of a restraining order “excessively long”.
The appeal is also about threatening former top civil servant Joris Demmink. Also with the camera rolling, Van den B. went to get a story from a club in The Hague to confront Demmink with suspicions of pedophilia, for which no evidence has ever been found.
The suspect also appears to be the party leader of the Jesus Lives party in the States elections in North Holland. “He is on the list. He is the only candidate,” says the party’s spokesperson after reporting AD in The Telegraph. “We are looking for people who don’t compromise. People who stand by their word.”
