“Yes, it’s true,” Laurens Buijs said without hesitation on Tuesday afternoon. In the Amsterdam court, the former lecturer at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) immediately acknowledges that he attacked colleagues, journalists and doctors on social media. “It’s true: I made all those statements. It all came from my pen.”
Buijs (42) is on trial for insult, defamation, slander, incitement and doxing – sharing personal data of third parties with malicious intentions. The list of people who suffered between 2024 and early 2025 is long, as is the collection of threats and offensive statements he made. For example, he wrote to journalist Chris Klomp, who has published about him several times, on X: “Chris, you are a sadistic pedophile.” On Facebook he called on “pedo hunters” to “visit the home” of his targets. He posted about doctors from the Amsterdam OLVG: “Psychopathic murderers.” In another message he called for a “people’s justice on Dam Square” against “corona psychopaths” mayor Femke Halsema and virologist Marion Koopmans.
The wappie book is closed. I’m going to cut ties with the woke community
In the courtroom, Buijs shows remorse. He talks about a “disastrous year” in which he lost control of himself. “It is very bad that I expressed my powerlessness in this way,” he said to three judges. Since his detention, he says, his life has changed. On the orders of the examining magistrate, he registered for a mental health program, he now knows that he suffers from a bipolar disorder. Physical complaints that he has been struggling with “since 2014” – he is said to have Crohn’s disease – are now being treated. About adhering to conspiracy theories, he says: “The wappie book is closed. I am going to cut ties with the woke community.” He wants to move forward, he says, “with compassion and nuance.”
‘Woke culture’
Buijs worked for many years as a lecturer and researcher at the UvA, specializing in gender, sexuality and diversity. In 2023 he suddenly came into the spotlight when he appeared in the university magazine Folia warned about what he saw as a “radical woke culture” within the university. In particular, his statement that non-binarity is “an empty hype without scientific basis” led to indignation from students and colleagues.
An independent committee later concluded that there was no question of a ‘woke dictatorship’ at the UvA. Buijs was suspended and left the university on February 1, 2024 after a settlement. In a short time he became more or less the face of the anti-woke resistance. “There are apparently many people who want to hear that there is a culture war going on, especially at the UvA,” said political scientist Saskia Bonjour at the time. in de Volkskrant. “I don’t understand how someone who rants so much is taken so seriously.”
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Tuesday’s lawsuit puts his criticism in a different light. Buijs emphatically describes his criminal behavior online as “the climax of a period in which things were not going well for me.” The pandemic played a role in this: “I did not agree with the corona policy. I felt angry, desperate, powerless.” Looking back, he sees a cry for help. “A down-and-out, bitter man who wanted to hurt the people who hurt him as much as possible.” When asked by the judges how he plans to prevent a recurrence, he says. “I don’t expect to end up in that spiral again.” He takes an antipsychotic, is off social media and has stopped smoking cannabis.
The public prosecutor spoke on Tuesday of “a stream of defamatory messages without any basis.” The Public Prosecution Service sees a huge increase in the number of criminal expressions via social media, “a worrying development”. The impact of this is also great in this case: journalist Chris Klomp has been receiving death threats for years, because people really believe that he is a pedophile. Nevertheless, the Public Prosecution Service takes into account Buijs’ psychological condition and the fact that he is now receiving treatment. “The suspect seems to really want to work on his problems.”
The Public Prosecution Service is demanding a sentence equal to the pre-trial detention of 88 days already served, supplemented with sixty hours of community service and a conditional prison sentence of two months with a probation period of two years. In addition, the Public Prosecution Service wants Article 38v of the Criminal Code to be applied – a measure for long-term supervision for convicts with a mental disorder.
Buijs’ lawyer argues for a fully suspended sentence. According to him, his client is capable of self-reflection and does not belong in the category of conspiracy theorists who persist in their delusions.
The court will give its ruling in three weeks.
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Former UvA lecturer Laurens Buijs arrested on suspicion of defamation, slander, doxing and incitement
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