The officer who, during the curfew riots in Eindhoven in January last year, shot protester Denisa against her head with a water cannon, has to appear in court. Her lawyer and the Public Prosecution Service (OM) are still arguing about the exact charge, but it is clear that the judiciary thinks the agent has gone too far with the water cannon.
The Czech Denisa was near the riots on January 24, 2021 and, according to her own words, got involved in it by accident. While she was standing with a group of others on the 18 Septemberplein, she got a hard jet of water against her head. She crashed into the concrete bicycle basement and suffered a skull fracture, serious head injury and many bruises. The incident was filmed and it became an iconic image of the riots.
Online, Denisa and her boyfriend were criticized a lot, because it seemed that they had looked up the riots themselves. “In retrospect, it was a bad idea to stand there, but we really didn’t expect it to get so out of hand,” said Denisa’s friend. rather about that. But the investigation that the National Criminal Investigation Service did shows that the friend himself was involved in the riots. He threw a chain lock from a bicycle at a police car. The use of the waterspout would be meant for him. Denisa wouldn’t be on the square ‘by accident’ either: she climbed onto the roof of the bicycle shed to film the police deployment.
But the Rijksrecherche investigation also shows that the police should have sent the couple away in a different way. The violence used has been ‘disproportionate’, according to a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service. “The water thrower is not intended to be aimed at individuals like that.”
Assault or attempted murder
If it is up to the judiciary, the female officer will be prosecuted for assault, because the water launcher was deliberately chosen, but Denisa was not consciously injured. A first pro forma hearing was already planned against her, next Wednesday, but that has been canceled because the victim and her lawyer believe that the charges should be much more serious.
“If someone kicks someone else’s head, it is immediately attempted manslaughter. This is the same,” says lawyer Barbara van Straaten. According to her, the agent has used the hardest water jet possible at close range, which increases the risk of serious injury. “Heavily disproportionate force has been used here. She is lucky that Denisa survived.”
According to Van Straaten, her client still has physical and psychological complaints, although she does not want to specify them.
The Public Prosecution Service intends to hold on to a prosecution for assault, but first gives the lawyer time to start proceedings to aggravate the suspicion. It is not yet clear when more will be known about this and exactly when the agent must appear.