The Public Prosecution Service will prosecute the officer who shot the tractor of 16-year-old farmer’s son Jouke Hospes from Akkrum during a farmer’s protest in Heerenveen on Tuesday 5 July.
The Public Prosecution Service announced this on Friday. Hospes was detained that evening at the police station in Leeuwarden on suspicion of attempted manslaughter. The following Wednesday there were protests at the police station and the Provinsjehûs, partly because of the dissatisfaction with the shelling and detention.
Jouke was heard and released that day and again a day later the Public Prosecution Service decided to dismiss the case. The shot was fired after Hospes drove away from officers. The police officer in question from the municipality of Opsterland thought that the boy wanted to use his tractor as a weapon.
Hole in cab
That assumption turned out to be wrong and so the Public Prosecution Service dropped the suspicion again. The shot caused a 12 millimeter hole in the bar of the cab. Had the bullet struck a few millimeters away, this could have had fatal consequences for Jouke, his mother Tjitske Hospes later stated. “Why don’t they shoot a tape?”
Jouke previously let his mother know that he wanted to talk to the agent, but so far it has not come to that. The family has not yet decided whether or not to file a report.