Eddy Zoëy strongly believes that André Hazes jr. and Monique Westenberg have received preferential treatment from the court. “It comes across as a kind of privilege.”
Celebrities who have to report to the court prefer to appear on location as inconspicuously as possible in order to avoid losing face. That didn’t work out for Thijs Römer: he was allowed to go through the back exit, but there was also the press there. For André Hazes jr. and Monique Westenberg that was arranged a lot better yesterday.
Preferential treatment
André and Monique drove up for their compulsory education case in a blinded car and were allowed to park in the garage, which is actually only intended for employees. “Now it seems a bit as if they enjoy preferential treatment, don’t they, with that beautiful blinded car into the parking garage,” notes presenter Eddy Zoëy in RTL Boulevard.
Strange, also thinks Luuk Ikink. “Normally you just have to walk up, right?”
Eddy: “Yes, you don’t go in through that inside.”
Pedantic attitude
Reporter Aran Bade is annoyed. “Yes, I thought it was a pretty pedantic attitude, even with that car. We stood there with all the press and André and Monique deal in showing their private lives – I mean: the underpants on the couch, what little Dreetje does – and then you enter a court of law in no time. I find it remarkable.”
They should have just entered through the main entrance, says Aran. What does press judge Astrid Lablans have to say about that? She says: “The request to enter the court in a special way is possible for everyone. That is not a special privilege of well-known Dutch people or anyone else.”
Privilege
However, such a request is ‘weighted’. Eddy: “Jermaine, it does come across as a bit of a privilege. How do you look at it?”
Crime reporter Jermaine Ellenkamp then: “I understand that they shield him inside, where minors are also present at hearings. Only you could have just let them go in through the front door and then shield them. That would have made much more sense.”
Good jobs
What does Jermaine think of the press judge’s rulings? “This press judge now says that anyone can make the request, but what I understand is that the court was the one who offered it to André and Monique. Precisely to steer that in the right direction.”
He concludes: “I just think the court should be smarter about this and let them in through the front door.”
Luuk thinks André and Monique can be happy: “You’d be embarrassed if you had to stand there, wouldn’t you?”