Three UvA demonstrators had to report to the court today. For the open violence that they committed according to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), they received very different judgments: two months in prison, sixty hours of community service and acquittal. The OM is clear: this kind of behavior is not tolerated and must always be answered with prison sentence. The details arecan be read back in the live blog.
Simone Z. climbed a shovel in May that the barricades had to end. In addition, she threw sticks to police officers and stood with a super soker full of red liquid in her hands. This should, today, the Public Prosecution Service must be punished with a four -month prison sentence.
And so the OM also thinks about Joaquin L. and Peike S. On the same day, according to the public prosecutor, they pelted ME’ers with stones, bottles and balloons with unknown liquid in it. It could have ended seriously, so you can hear the public prosecutor telling in court today.
But the court does not agree with that, in no case a demonstrator will get the fully demanded punishment. Z. has to go to the cell for two months, for L. there is a community service sentence of sixty hours and S. is acquitted for lack of evidence.
A spear or a stick?
The Chinese Z. threw with sticks to ME agents, and this is unacceptable according to the OM. The public prosecutor describes it as ‘a kind of spears’, with which the demonstrator throws. But her lawyer sees this very differently: “By presenting that stick as if there were a sharp metal point, you get a picture of a life -threatening situation with a stab weapon.”
The other two demonstrators, Joaquin L. and Pike S. receive prison and acquittal. S. also denies having been near the barricades during the demonstrations.
Joaquin L. confesses, while he denied something wrong about eight months ago. He and about ten other demonstrators came to court in the past year. L.’s case was then arrested.
“The only means”
Z. was not present in court today, but spoke with AT5 yesterday. That surprises both the judge and the officer. She said yesterday that she would have done nothing wrong, since the police “are paid for things like this” and “it is not violence, because the police are protected.”
The officer: “Is it okay to be pelted with a brick when you have a helmet on?” He sees imprisonment as the only means to make it clear that this kind of behavior is not appropriate.