All Extinction Rebellion activists were removed from the A10 after the action that started around 12.30 pm. At the end of the afternoon it was announced that 300 of them had been arrested in connection with violating the Public Manifestations Act. That number has now risen to 400. According to the police, twenty of them have ‘created a life-threatening situation’.
A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service (OM) informed AT5 that a total of twenty demonstrators are suspected of deliberately causing a hazard on the road.
Seven of them have already been arrested. According to the police, these are the activists who entered the highway a few hundred meters in front of the De Schoen building. The search for the other thirteen is still ongoing.
Very dangerous
“The activists have created a life-threatening situation for both themselves and other road users,” the police said. Rijkswaterstaat immediately had to close the lanes, resulting in activists taking to the highway a little further on.
The other group of demonstrators, approximately 380 people, were transported to a location in Noord and sent away without ID checks. According to the spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service, the lack of police capacity and the fact that these are peaceful demonstrators play a role.
The activists demonstrated despite the fact that the Amsterdam mayor, police and judiciary previously banned Extinction Rebellion from demonstrating on the A10. The group wants ING to stop financing the fossil industry. According to them, this place has more impact than demonstrating at the bank’s current head office.
“It must happen in a place where no one can ignore us. We have demonstrated more than a hundred times against ING in the past two years. We want people to know what happens to our tax money – which we transfer to ING,” a spokesperson for the group previously told AT5.
The A10 has now been released again.