A shotgun, two revolvers, a carbine rifle, a gas pistol and a converted gas pistol, butterfly knives, crossbows, arrows with sharp metal tips and 250 bullets. The police found this entire collection in the anti-squat home of Thomas D. in the Brabant village of Erp. 24-year-old D. is a member of the, according to the Public Prosecution Service, the extreme right-wing group Geuzenbond, the affiliated Greater Dutch Student Association (GNSV) and Voorpost. From his home, a former restaurant, D. ran a “small arms factory”, according to the Public Prosecution Service.
It was reason for the police to arrest D. last August – after a tip from the AIVD – and detain him at the terrorist department in Vught. D. remains in pre-trial detention, the judge decided on Wednesday during the first pro forma hearing in Rotterdam.
The suspect is said to have targeted anti-fascist activists. “If Antifa is at the door, I will stab them to death,” said . D. suspected of preparing a terrorist crime, possession of weapons and making (parts of) weapons and ammunition. The Public Prosecution Service dropped the terrorist motive on Wednesday, because there was insufficient evidence to support the preparation of a concrete crime.
Nevertheless, the public prosecutor calls the case “downright frightening.” D. knows how to obtain, make and convert weapons and ammunition. Testing and categorizing all the weapons was “a big job” for the police, the officer said. D. also had manuals for making firearms, tear gas, explosive material landmines and ammunition. Moreover, the suspect adheres to the racist depopulation theory and advocates “remigration”. That ideology and his preference for weapons form a dangerous combination, the officer says.
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Converted gas pistol
According to the National Coordinator for Terrorism and Security (NCTV), right-wing extremists use ‘remigration’ to describe their deportation plans. These radicals want to realize a ‘white ethnostate’ by eventually killing “millions of people on the basis of their race, religion, orientation or unwelcome views.” [te] deport.” That plan cannot be carried out without violence, says the counter-terrorism fighter.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, the Geuzenbond is one of many active clubs worldwide. These types of groups strive to normalize right-wing extremist ideas and make “the white race” resilient by encouraging sports such as kickboxing. The club, which was founded in 2018, says it “rejects” liberalism and Marxism, is against abortion and euthanasia, and only wants marriages between men and women.
According to his lawyer, D. does not advocate violence, the reduction of human rights or an authoritarian system. The police also found no unusual features in his telephone, a partially broken old telephone and his laptop, the lawyer says. he allegedly sent drunk, and was conditional: “If they harm me,” he meant, according to the lawyer.
Although D. had converted a gas pistol, according to his lawyer he would not dare to use it, for fear that the creation would explode in his own hand. Some other weapons were made in the early twentieth century. Ammo would no longer be available for the oldest weapon.
Risk of recidivism
D. – gray turtleneck, blue jeans and sneakers, hair shaved on the sides – exercised his right to say something on Wednesday. The two times he walks past the court illustrators, he looks carefully at the drawings that are being made of him. He finds it intense to experience, he says. In his own words, he has “always distanced himself from violence in word and deed.” As action leader at the Geuzenbond, he would only call for actions with stickers and posters. He also took part in demonstrations. He has been “a gun enthusiast all my life.” However, he would never use them, he says. D. made the mistake, he says, of not collecting the weapons legally.
D. has now been in custody for three and a half months. The lawyer hopes that his client will be allowed to await the remainder of his criminal case in freedom, so that the third-year HBO student can resume his studies.
Because the probation service’s report on the risk of recidivism has not yet been received, the court does not want to release D.. Because the suspect is such a gun fanatic, the judge expects him to start tinkering again. The three and a half months of pre-trial detention also does not outweigh the charges of prohibited possession of weapons. The judge calls it annoying that prohibited weapons are in circulation in Erp. “I think I understand,” says the suspect.
The next hearing will take place on February 5.
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