Four rioters have been given short prison sentences for violence against football fans visiting Amsterdam for a Europa League match between Ajax Amsterdam and Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Sefa Ö, 32, was sentenced to six months in prison by the Amsterdam District Court, while another man was sentenced to ten weeks and two others were sentenced to one month each. A fifth defendant was ordered to perform community service under Dutch juvenile criminal law.
The judge said a prison sentence for the four was appropriate given the seriousness of the offenses and the context in which they took place.
The riots broke out in several areas of the Dutch capital in early November and led to international condemnation.
The five defendants convicted Tuesday were the first to face trial in the hit-and-run that erupted in the early hours of Nov. 8 after incidents that occurred over two days.
The court said there was ample video evidence showing Maccabi fans being subjected to extreme violence, and also pointed to footage of supporters pulling down Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Arab slogans. Taxis were also vandalized by fans.
The court chairman added that there had already been unrest in the Netherlands due to the Gaza war.
While the court “considered the context” of the events, it said there was “no justification for inciting and using physical violence against Israeli supporters.”
Sefa O He was found to have delivered a karate-style kick to a victim, causing him to fall into a moving tram, and was involved in several other attacks.
The trial apparently saw video footage showing him kicking and punching victims on Dam Square, Damrak and Zoutsteeg, and prosecutors said he played a leading role in violence that had nothing to do with football.
Rachid OThe 26-year-old, who was sentenced to 10 weeks in prison, is said to have taken part in a WhatsApp chat group called Buurthuis2 in which he described the intended victims as “cowardly” Jews who he would never attack again.
More than 900 people were in the group and the court said the chat was used to pass on information to “exert violence against people of Jewish descent and/or supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv.”
Umutcan AIt was also discovered that the 24-year-old had kicked one of the victims several times while taking part in an attack with other men and then kicked another fan to the ground. CCTV footage showed him attacking several Maccabi fans, grabbing one fan by the throat and snatching his football scarf.
He had written in news groups about a “Jew hunt,” but said before the trial that he had no hatred toward Jews.
Karanveer SThe 26-year-old had already been convicted of assault in 2022 and the court found that this did not stop him from taking part in last month’s attacks.
The youngest of the five, Lucas DThe 19-year-old was found to have used violence against a police officer and participated in a separate Snapchat group that called for violence against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.
The five have every two weeks to file an appeal.
The court said he had an illegal, highly explosive “cobra” firework in his possession at the time of his arrest. The public prosecutor’s office had demanded a prison sentence for Lucas D.
Chief prosecutor René de Beukelaer had previously rejected claims that the attacks were terrorism, saying the group’s aim was not to instill fear in the people they targeted.
However, he said instances of anti-Semitism were shared in a news group.
“I can well understand that the Jewish community in Amsterdam was afraid because of this violence, but that is different from saying that this was the target of the suspects,” he told Amsterdam TV station AT5 earlier this month.
