After Jumbo had already stopped sponsoring Frits van Eerd, Max Verstappen now also has to believe it. And the cyclists. The money tap in Veghel is closed. According to an expert, it doesn’t matter to Max. It saves a sticker on his helmet, but hundreds of companies are lining up to leave a decal with their logo on the driver for god’s sake.
Maybe something for KLM. After old-fashioned Dutch cheating with the corona support, they seem to still have something in cash. KLM denies all allegations, but wants to appoint our Sywert as a supervisory director.
Jumbo will not only stop supporting Max, but also the Zandvoort Grand Prix. That is on the nitrogen circuit of our national slumlord Prince Bernhard. He is really not going to pay for that boring car racing out of his own pocket, so the rent will go up for half of Amsterdam. As a result, many will no longer be able to afford their home and we will soon see them with a Homeless newspaper standing in front of the Jumbo.
I am writing this piece in Belgium, where I am closing a Flemish tour of several weeks this weekend. I was playing in the pleasant student city of Leuven when the final verdict of the court against the members of the now defunct student association Reuzegom was announced. The eighteen students got away with 400 euros and 300 hours of community service. They had murdered young student Sanda Dia in 2018 by making him drink salty fish oil containing a crushed live mouse. He had to wash away a live goldfish that had just been eaten while standing in a pit filled with ice-cold water for hours. The boy did not survive. The sadistic students cleaned up everything and deleted all photos and videos from their phones. They are therefore already called ‘giant gummers’. They were not allowed by their legal advisers to send a letter of apology to Dia’s parents. Then they would plead guilty. And that’s stupid after such a job.
The word “murdered” in this piece was chosen by me. I couldn’t find another word. My vocabulary is limited because I never studied. The shrewd lawyers of the students found all kinds of soft words for the atrocities of these jolly hazers. After years of legal wrangling over commas and points, the court gave the boys the limited community service order and the summary fine, which do not appear on their criminal record. A victory for the top lawyers.
The popular Flemish YouTuber Acid has now announced five names of the boys via a video. Simply because he thinks it’s class justice. It’s a real shame that these sons of the Flemish elite get away with this.
The video, which has since been removed by YouTube, is still buzzing on the Belgian internet. A lawyer for one of the perpetrators is furious and wonders what this witch hunt is for. Whether we should play judge ourselves and make sure that the boys are followed for the rest of their lives? Interesting question. Responding in this way is an essential part of this top lawyer’s job.
Like I wonder if as a lawyer in this sad case you should open the entire legal box of tricks, after which the judge can only pronounce lenient sentences. In this case it is not about ‘calling on the moped’, but about hours of torture by boys who have erased everything very refined Spic & Span afterwards. Maybe cleaning up is an idea for a good community service.
Acid was banned from publication for a week, but has already announced that he will go wild after that. And I feel everything here that Belgium is ready for it. Compared to this case, our Voice scandal was child’s play.
But it is about more than a hazing that got out of hand. Something with straight and crooked? I fear that these top lawyers are initially very satisfied with themselves, but that their clients will think differently in the long run. And especially when they are eighteen with their Homeless Gazette at the Delhaize.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper on June 3, 2023.