What started as a terror cell of nine highly educated Muslims, ends up as an innocent group of friends with strange humor. Nine Eindhoven terror suspects were acquitted of all suspicions on Tuesday. According to the Rotterdam court, there is no evidence that they were planning an attack, of which the Public Prosecution Service (OM) suspected them.
That means the end of one of the largest Dutch terrorism cases in recent years.
The suspects met in a garage in Woensel in Eindhoven, where they had set up a fitness room. The OM thought they were training for jihad there. But according to the judge, the men simply followed physical training to maintain their condition and were not radicalized. Although they watched videos of the terrorist movement IS together, they did not identify with the IS ideology.
Laughable atmosphere
An acquittal in such a major terrorism case is rare. Four years in prison had been demanded against two leaders of the group. Members of terrorist organizations who were prosecuted in recent years (a group of Arnhemmers with Kalashnikovs and a recruiting network from The Hague) were sentenced to years in prison.
Where did it go wrong this time? “It seems that the OM has been guided too much by fear rather than facts,” said Anis Boumanjal, one of the group’s lawyers.
According to Boumanjal, it was clear much earlier that the suspects were not the dangerous terror cell that the Public Prosecution Service took them for.
The men were arrested in 2021 just after they talked about murdering Geert Wilders during a movie night. The seriousness of that plan was immediately questioned. Talking about the attack happened during an action film in a “laughing” atmosphere, according to the tapped conversations. No weapons or other clues were found that supported the attack plan.
Read also: How serious were the Eindhoven friends about attacks and the murder of politicians?
Propaganda Videos
However, the group turned out to be very interested in IS propaganda videos. But that is not a criminal offence, Boumanjal emphasises. “If you are in a certain online youth culture, it is common to watch and share shocking videos. You can think something about that from a moral point of view, but everyone has the freedom to do so. More importantly, it is not evidence of terrorist activity.”
Boumanjal finds it incomprehensible that the suspects were nevertheless presented as a terrorist group by the Public Prosecution Service, were subsequently held in pre-trial detention for eight months, and then had to wear an ankle bracelet.
“I cannot escape the impression that the Islamic context was the reason that they ended up in this mega-trial, without hard evidence on the table. Moreover, there is no differentiation between the main suspect and the boys who have been dragged into it. Even boys who clearly distanced themselves from IS during tapped conversations were prosecuted as so-called group members. I can’t imagine that this monstrous trial would also have been set up if it concerned Dutch youths who watch extreme right-wing videos of the Ku Klux Klan. I am testing a selective approach that needs to be named, however uncomfortable that may be.”
Damage claim
Boumanjal has been approached by a number of the Eindhoven suspects to prepare a claim for damages, due to the unjustified pre-trial detention. A standard rate of 110 euros per day in prison applies. That would amount to about 25,000 euros per suspect – a quarter of a million in total.
“But I can already reveal that the claim will probably be higher,” says Boumanjal, “because the damage done is many times greater. In Eindhoven everyone knows who it is about, these guys now have a huge stigma. They have had to stop training, others have lost well-paid jobs. The criminal trial may be over, but these guys still have a long way to go.”