Well-known Breda lawyer Peter Schouten believes that the call, which was made last week to press charges against Mayor Jack Mikkers of Den Bosch, will not lead to a prosecution by the Public Prosecution Service. Several Moroccan Dutch people were angry with the mayor after a statement about Moroccans and nuisance. This was filmed and posted online.
“This is a very broad complaint in which we accuse Mikkers of inciting hate, calling for discrimination and racism,” spokesperson Younes Hanin explained on behalf of the initiators on Friday. “It is then up to the Public Prosecution Service to make a judgement.”
Mikkers made his controversial comment during a noisy information evening about the choice of location for the reception of asylum seekers. The mayor subsequently announced in a statement (at the bottom of this message) that he based his statement on figures from the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA).
“There is no incitement to violence or hatred.”
Schouten was ‘only briefly aware’ of Mikkers’ statement, but he does not see any reason for prosecution or a serious sense of guilt. “Hate speech must clearly involve ‘incitement to’. This must be a concrete form of incitement to violence or hatred. So not just a subjective feeling.” According to the criminal lawyer, that does not seem to be the case here.
There could be a question of insulting a population group. Schouten points to the ‘Less Moroccans’ statement by PVV politician Geert Wilders from 2014. “You can see such a statement as an insult.” Wilders was convicted of this, because of insulting a group, but was not punished.
“A clumsy statement.”
But the most important thing is that Mikkers, according to his own statement, did indeed base his decision on figures. “When push comes to shove due to the factual nature of the ruling, the judge will acquit for group insult. To be honest, I don’t even think the Public Prosecution Service will prosecute.”
Nevertheless, Schouten thinks it is a clumsy statement by Mikkers. “If it is based on a thorough investigation, you can identify a problem in order to be able to focus on prevention. But then he must also name numbers 2, 3 and 4 on the list.”
“We know the chance of punishment is small.”
“We know that the chance that Mikkers will receive a punishment is small,” initiator Younes Hanin said last week. “But that does not prevent us from sending a clear signal to society.”
It has not yet been announced how many people have reported the Moroccan statement against Mikkers.
“In retrospect, I shouldn’t have mentioned these figures at all.”
Mikkers issued a statement after his controversial statement. It goes as follows: “There were questions from local residents about what the arrival of refugees would mean for their safety. COA told us, among other things, which countries the refugees come from. People who are placed in the places that are now in the picture. These are particularly Syrian, Turkish, Afghan, Eritrean and Somali people who have fled.”
“One of the residents then indicated that ‘Syrian people are the worst’. In the sense of people who cause nuisance and incidents. I then wanted to indicate that of the so-called safelanders who come to our country and are involved in nuisance, the COA indicates that this mainly concerns asylum applicants from Morocco. The COA indicates that the most nuisance comes from asylum seekers with little or no chance of a successful asylum application from the MALT countries. These are Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have mentioned these figures at all.”
Mayor Jack Mikkers’ statement made a lot of waves last week. You can read those first reactions here.